PRAYER: Lord allow us to not take on persecution or rejection. Take us out of the box and help us to meet Your standards and expectations for our lives.
VERSE OF THE DAY: Matthew 5:1-12, Ephesians 6:12
Have you ever reached a point on this journey called life where you felt like you were being nailed to the cross? While no one can ever compare to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ it feels almost as if you walked that mile or two in His shoes. It feels like no matter what you say or no matter what you do, it is all wrong. No matter how kind, loving, or supportive you are it’s just not good enough. No matter what you do or how you do it, it doesn’t meet the criteria. No matter how much you try to fit in, you stand more and more out. No matter how compassionate and empathetic you maybe, your met at the door with apathy from the very people you thought walked the same treacherous road as you. You know the road which feels like the road to Golgotha (Calvary). The road that Jesus walked after experiencing the flogging, the beatings, the blows, the bruises, and the curses.
People will nail you to the cross IF you allow them too. There are others who will curse you and break up the very ground that you walk on IF you let them. There are some who desire for you to meet their standards and their requirements and they will dismiss you, IF you let them. Notice how I said IF. You already had a Savior who died on the cross for you. You already serve a Savior who laid down His life on the cross that we might have life and have it more abundantly. So where does the part where you have to accept the persecution or the rejection fit into your picture? That’s just it, it doesn’t fit. It was already done on the cross for you and me. All we have to do is live in the overflow and the abundance of what God has given us. Live and be everything you are because Christ died for everything you are NOT. You are NOT a curse, you are a blessing. You are the head and NOT the tail. You are above and NOT beneath. So stop letting people try to nail you to the cross because you don’t fit inside of their box or because you don’t meet their standards or expectations. Jesus already died for you so that you don’t have to endure the type of suffering in which He faced.
Just because they persecute or reject you doesn’t mean you have to stand for it or accept it. You don’t have to walk and talk with it. You don’t have to carry it to bed with you. You don’t have to arise with it in the morning. You don’t have to allow it to chain to your soul. You don’t have to live with it. You too can dismiss that which does not belong in your space. Free your mind, body, and soul from the destructive behavior that others try to place towards you. People are not your enemy! Majority of the time, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).” So I encourage you to put on your spiritual sunshades and recognize it, correct it, and move forward knowing that Jesus paid it all for you and me already. You don’t have to be nailed to a cross because it was already done for us all. So walk through the persecution or the rejection with grace because after all it was His grace that saved you and me!
Epiphany Encounter 