A WORD IN SEASON TO THE WEARY
6th May 🌷🌷
“Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12)
The angel said to Joseph, “… fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 1:20). In other words, “Don’t be afraid to bear the reproach for a while. You are given the privilege of being reproached. Don’t take any notice of what will come upon you and your wife. God will defend you and bear your reproach”. It is very hard to imagine what kind of reproach Mary and Joseph had to bear when the Child was conceived, because at that time no one knew the truth except Mary and Joseph. Afterwards God revealed it to Elizabeth and she also knew. And so they had to bear the reproach. If you want to enjoy your salvation, do not be afraid of the reproaches that will come upon you. If you want to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ you have to bear to reproach. You may live a life of ungodliness and sin, and you find that your relations, neighbours and, friends will not bother about you. But when you follow God’s Word even your most intimate friends and relations will start reproaching you. The more you obey God, the more you will have to bear reproaches. No one can escape that. That is the divine law. We must be reproached.
The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matt. 10:24-25, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” The Master of the house went about doing good (Acts 10:38) yet they called Him Beelzebub. In fact, they called Him by many other names too. So the Lord Jesus Christ said, “If they have called Me by that name how are you going to escape?” People who were healed by the Lord called Him by many bad names. But He bore it all. We too must be prepared for reproaches through friends, relations and neighbours.
If you want other people to be blessed by you do not murmur or complain when you are reproached. It does not matter how watchful and careful you are, you will be reproached. You may say, “I have not done anything wrong, why am I being reproached? When I do not harm anyone why do people speak against me?” Did the Lord Jesus Christ do any harm to anyone? As a matter of fact, He only did good to others. Yet He was reproached. Yet He was reviled. People will speak many unkind things about us (See 1 Peter 4:12-14; John 15:21). But it happened to all the prophets and it happened to the Lord also. We ought to rejoice that we are partakers of the Lord’s sufferings. If God wanted, He could have hid Mary and Joseph, but He left them where they were, and allowed them to bear the reproaches. We too have to bear the reproaches. You cannot escape.
If you want to be partakers of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to rejoice in your reproaches. You may say, “If others reproach me I do not mind , but if believers do so how to bear it?” Whether they are strangers or believers, they are led by the devil. And we are going to be reproached more and more, as we obey the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is you reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matt. 5:12).we have to be glad because the Spirit of glory will rest upon us (1 Peter 4:14). All God’s servants and prophets suffered much. Do not be afraid of bearing reproaches. A time will come when people will understand.
