Rejoice When Christ Is Preached Through Persecution

He was called by God to preach the gospel. He traveled to lands far away from his home. He was beaten with rods. He was thrown in jail numerous times and he rejoiced in all that he went through. Who was he? It was the Apostle Paul.

Lately as I have been studying through the book of Philippians I have seen Paul as a persecuted Christian more than ever. Yet, as with today's Christians who are persecuted, Paul rejoiced. He rejoiced that he was considered worthy of persecution and even reminded the saints in Philippi that it has not only been granted to them for Christ's sake to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. (Phil 1:29)

The other thing about Paul that I really like is that he was such an optimist. He was humble enough to ask for prayers from the saints, but he also spoke the truth concerning how people even preach Christ. When he was in the Philippian jail he saw the fruit of why he was called there, even though he had been beaten with rods and wrongly thrown in there in the first place.

However, he was an optimist. When he heard that others were preaching Christ from impure motives, he rejoiced because the name of Jesus was being preached.

I think this is a worthy example for us to follow. When Christ is preached we need to rejoice. When we see saints suffering wrongly throughout the world because of their faith in Jesus we need to rejoice because Christ is being preached in those circumstance.

So like Paul, can you rejoice when you suffer persecution if you know that Jesus is being preached. I pray so.