Each child of God should ask the question: “How am I to live for Christ in this world?” ‘Time in history’ and ‘location on earth’ have presented different challenges to those who love Jesus. A Christian who lived in Berlin, Germany in the 1930’s had to decide how to react to a ‘fuehrer’ who eventually made it clear he intended to kill every Jew on earth. Discerning the will of God in the midst of crisis is not always simple.
In 2008, a fourteen-year-old boy named Zaid was walking near his house in Mosul, Iraq. Three men confronted him and asked if he was a Christian. Zaid answered ‘yes’ and was shot and killed on the street. Zaid’s parents have not only lost a son but their home and all their possessions to ISIS. Eight years later they still trust Jesus in their war-torn country. Such trials face many of our brothers and sisters in certain nations, but we must also decide what it means to live for Christ in our world.
As we look to the Savior, we can be encouraged. While His goal was always the Father’s will, He had different seasons of life. “Didn’t you know I had to be about My Father’s business?” twelve-year-old Jesus asked His parents after they found Him in the Temple. But for the next eighteen years, we have no record of what exactly that meant. We assume Jesus lived as a carpenter in Nazareth, working hard and treating people as He wanted to be treated.
After His baptism, Jesus found Himself in a hostile world. The devil confronted Him in the wilderness and made it clear that God’s will would be opposed. As Jesus taught, healed, and loved the lost, He faced persecution from those who did not recognize the Messiah. So how did Jesus know what to do? How did He know what to say? How did He know how to live in a crazy world? The secret for Jesus is the secret for us: He lived in fellowship with the Father.
Day-to-day fellowship with the Father is the way the child of God successfully lives in this world. Whichever our generation, wherever we are on the earth, whatever dilemma arises, God is not confused… or surprised. We can ask what He thinks: “How would You handle this situation?” Then: “Lord, please give me the grace, strength, and courage to trust and obey.”
“I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught Me. The One who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.” John 8:28-29
“For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.” John 6:38-39
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know You have sent Me. I have made You known to them and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I Myself may be in them.” John 17:25-26
(Zaid’s story is found in the December 2016 issue of The Voice of the Martyrs newsletter, p 9)