Teaching Blog

“Faithful Christians will have faithful friends” 

Have you ever been told that? Or maybe you’ve just thought that if you are a believer, you’ll have friends and family who believe in you.   Here’s the truth: It doesn’t always work like that!  And the sooner you let your heart learn this, the happier you’ll be.

Remember Mary

Mary received the greatest of all blessings when an angel declared to her

“Rejoice, highly favored one.”   If you look at the original language, and other places this word is used you’ll see God was telling her ‘You are Accepted in Christ’ or to paraphrase, ‘I’ll be your home from now on, no matter what!’  

You who believe receive the same promise.  (Isn’t that amazing?) But when Jesus accepts you through faith it does not mean everyone else will.

Look at the direction of Mary’s new life:

Mary; a single, pregnant teenager, travels 2 or 3 days on foot to live with her relative Elizabeth.

Where are her parents?!  Why does she have to risk a long and lonesome journey just to find help?  Is there no one in her community to be a friend to her? Our hearts hurt to see this young pregnant teenager so alone.  But sometimes that is part of living God’s way.

Mary, now 9 months pregnant, is forced to walk 3 days to Bethlehem. 

This time it’s not her community that fails her but her government which requires her to report, in person, to her future husband’s ancestral home.  Does it seem like things are stacked against her?  

There is no room for her in the inn

Or, you could say, her future in-laws don’t want to open their house to her! ‘She is an unwed mother after all’.  Or so they thought.  But the truth is she was living a life of purity and walking according to God’s word.  But sometimes walking with God is a lonely walk.  Sometimes it means being misunderstood, even by other believers.  Especially by other believers.

Look At Your Expectations

When you see something in scripture, and make it part of your life— do you expect applause or friction?

Are there times when you make a greater commitment to God?  Will everyone understand it?  To many your commitment will be foreign and weird.  They will think bad of the good thing you are doing.

When you love God and follow Him in truth it will change how you love everything else.  Think about that.  If you love anything- cars, books, a husband/wife, … coffee, anything — it will change how much time, money, effort you can spend on loving what you used to love.   

And change scares people.  And scared people change.  

So hold on to Jesus, for He will always hold on to you.  And even if the people around you change, He never will.

Share