Philippians 1:12 But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel

One thing I do struggle with at times is how many things go wrong in my life! I’m not talking about stubbing my little toe or things like that but the spiritual attacks we seem to attract as Christians.

I do like to think that everything I go through actually makes me more prepared to help others; but I cannot put my hand on my heart as say that for sure!

We live in an evil and broken world and as such we should expect some bad things to come our way, not because we are bad nor because we do anything wrong; just because we live in an evil world!

Acts 8:1 Now Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

When the going got tough for the Jews, many of the people left the area and scattered themselves throughout the surrounding areas.

We see this happening today with many people fleeing from persecution and wars to try and at least live a normal life somewhere else in the world.

But the apostles and many devout church leaders stayed behind to make sure the Gospel was told to the people. They were willing to face the persecution rather than leaving people without hope.

God calls us to stand up and trust Him. That is very hard when the world around you seems to be going mad!

Luke 11:23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

I like to think of these words as encouraging us not to use the wrong stuff to try and do the right stuff with.

We can use a metal dish to mix things up with and even place in an oven, but we cannot use it in a microwave. We need to choose our tools and choose the time to use them correctly.

When we come forward to discourage people from doing wrong or following evil, we should not use evil to try and accomplish that with.