I don’t know about you, but from where I sit it’s getting harder and harder to remain faithful to Christ; to speak boldly that which we believe; even just to keep believing it in the face of pressures that demand we conform to a new, godless order. How, deep down in our souls, can we remain faithful to Jesus, hmm?
Mariam Farahat was a Palestinian Christian who, under pressure, converted to Islam but later returned to Christ in secret, though doing so meant certain death under local law. When discovered, she was imprisoned and brutally interrogated. Despite threats and physical abuse, she refused to deny Jesus again. Ultimately, she was executed by extremists in 2010.
Whilst her story’s largely untold outside underground church circles, she’s remembered by believers in the region as one who, like the martyrs of old, stood firm under torture and death rather than renounce Christ.
That sort of strength seems inhuman, otherworldly. That’s because it is! This is what the Apostle Paul wrote to his friends in 1st-century Ephesus:
Ephesians 3:16 I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit.
That wasn’t merely some spiritual platitude. It struck home to these Christians living under constant cultural, spiritual and economic pressures that made their faith in Jesus costly.
Whatever assails you – temptation and sin, addiction, outside pressures to conform to increasingly godless social norms – know this:
The Father will give you the power to be strong in your spirit. He will give you that strength through his Spirit.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
