Be ready for opposition

Acts 17: ² As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. ⁴ Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

 ⁵ But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.

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“This is the wrong class” I said to the teacher.  I was supposed to be in Honors English but they put me in the regular class.  I had to fight this for two weeks. Finally I was placed in the correct class.  The Honors English teacher was tough and very unforgiving; in fact she gave me an “F” for the quarter because I had missed a major assignment during the two weeks I wasn’t there.

“Hey that’s not fair” I said to her. Her reply was “life’s not fair.” What was I to do? I had to study harder.

• Life will dish out situations that are not fair.
• Life will dish out circumstances that are against me.
• Life will dish out challenges to my path even though I am trying to do what is right.

Paul and Silas were trying to preach about JESUS but the religious politicians felt their wealth and power were at stake. They falsely accused Paul and Silas and started a riot.  After this incident a lot of unfair things happened but Paul and Silas held their ground and preached about CHRIST in spite of being falsely accused.

• Even though life may be unfair, I have to persevere towards CHRIST.
• Even though life may be unfair, I must continue to preach about JESUS’ unconditional love.
• Even though life may be unfair, I need to depend that GOD has the situation handled.

Any time I take on the challenge of living for CHRIST, I will face opposition. Things will break and relationships will sever. BUT GOD will heal all and fix all with HIS might, grace and love.

• Are you facing unfair situations?
• Do you feel you are being wronged?
• Have you examined your life to see if you are living for CHRIST?
• If you are living for CHRIST then “why don’t you expect opposition?”