If you’ve been a Christian for any amount of time, you’ll find that your old friends may not like you as much as they used to. You may think that because they don’t want to spend time with you that they are persecuting you. Maybe you can’t wear your Christian t-shirt to school, or people snicker when you pray before you eat. But is that really persecution?

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”

– John 15:18

In my opinion, no, it’s not. Those things are not something that you should whine and complain about. Here is a collection of videos from the Voice of the Martyrs. Here, you will learn about a mother’s struggle of telling her kids that they may die because they love Christ, or see a Pastor’s sacrifice as he leads others to Jesus. Not to mention the many churches that have been bombed. While the people you’ll see in the videos are actors, they are portraying real people who were willing to give all for Christ. And that should break your heart. 

Voice of the Martyrs recently featured Poonam from India’s story (1). She was secretly reading God’s word and turned to Him. When her husband found out, he tore her Bible into pieces and told her she could not pray. He beat her for her belief and eventually kicked her out of the house, not allowing her to ever see her three children again. A nearby pastor gave her a Bible, and she cried with joy. Seriously, many homes in America have more than one Bible, and it’s not read nearly as much as it should be. While in other parts of the world, there are people dying for God’s Word, and here we are, complaining that we’re being persecuted as we’re scrolling past our Bible app on our phone.

Not only are we given access to multiple Bibles, but we can access them in any language that we read. Four churches in Tajikstan were fined for translating the Bible into the native language (2). It cost them roughly $700-1,100 dollars, and they only make about $150 a month. You may not be a math major, but that math comes out to 5-7 month’s worth of pay. 

Here’s another example: six months after John became a Christian, his foster parents and others around him began to curse and mistreat him (3). His foster parents told him they regretted letting him in their home and informed him that an important surgery to remove a metal rod in his leg would be canceled unless he renounced Christ. His reply was that he would still love and respect his foster parents and that his surgery could wait until he had the funds to pay for it himself. 

The few accounts I listed here don’t even scratch the surface of the atrocities that our brothers and sisters in Christ are facing. While we can see persecution coming to America, we are not there just yet. We need to pray for a revival, and we need to stop feeling bad for ourselves when someone gets offended that we follow Christ. Last time I checked, no one has thrown me in jail because of it. Please pray for these persecuted Christians!

“Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.” 

– Luke 6:22

If you do not know 100% that you will be going to Heaven when you die, now is the time to repent and put your faith and trust in Christ Jesus. If you have any questions or doubts about your salvation, click here to read how you can be saved.

References:

1. “Poonam from India”. Voice of the Martyrs. Poonam from India’s story taken from https://www.persecution.com/whoweserve/ (accessed April 23, 2020)
2. Churches being fined for translating the Bible. I Commit To Pray. https://www.icommittopray.com/request/2016/fined%2Dchurches/ (accessed April 23, 2020)
3. John’s story. I Commit To Pray. https://www.icommittopray.com/request/2000/john/ (accessed April 23, 2020)

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.