NOT WITHOUT PERSECUTIONS

PRAYER MOMENT 

Tuesday 26 May 2015

NOT WITHOUT PERSECUTIONS

Pause. Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading: “You will be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecution – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.” (Mark 10:28-31)

Reflection. Jesus promises those who leave everything – either literally or in poverty of spirit, that is, they are not absorbed by them – many blessings but he adds ‘you will have persecution in this present time.’ Yet we are often surprised by persecution as if it just shouldn’t happen. By persecution I mean big things, like what is happeninig in South Sudan, Syria and Iraq, and little tings such as is caused by jealousy in our own circle of family or friends. God has given us this beautiful world but it is a provisional world, there to get us accustomed to the real and permanent beauty that he will reveal one day. We are on the vital threshold of that beauty and like a rough diamond we have to have the impurities removed in the tosser. So persecution in one form or another is bound to be there.   

Prayer. Lord, help us not to lose heart when we are agitated by events. Help us to see how you are purifying us in preparation for life with you forever. Amen.

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