Dear friends,
I do not know the world you will live in, but I know the Lord said, “In this world, you will have trouble,” so I want to give you some advice on how to continue to honor Christ when that trouble comes. There are so many things I’d like to be able to share with you, so many precious truths that can comfort your soul and transform the way you live. But if I only have the opportunity to tell you one thing, let’s make it this: No matter what happens, when life is easy, and especially when life is hard, remember the gospel!
No one wants to suffer; we’re going to avoid it if we can. But “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2Tim 3:12). So what do we do when it comes, when it’s unavoidable? We have more wisdom from “Babylon” on that matter.
The early church saw Rome as a new Babylon, embodying its power, wickedness, and oppression. Peter, writing from there, saw what was coming for the church and wanted to help them not just survive but honor Christ under persecution.
In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped 20-40 inches of rain on the Houston area in just a few days. Thousands of houses were flooded, including the homes of some of the couples in our “newlyweds” Sunday school class. Our class of mostly 20-somethings descended on those houses hauling out furniture, ripping out carpet, and tearing out drywall.
Isaiah 40-45 is one of my favorite stretches in the Bible. When I’m feeling down, this passage picks me up. It paints several pictures of who God is. And those pictures are big, which is why I love it. Because when God is big, everything else seems small.
