All my life I've gotten help. Just even recently my wife went to the emergency room and I had to take a spot loan out from my parents so I could afford to get the car my wife had left hours away on the side of the road. I've been very blessed by many people in my life as I've faced hardships. Yet I'm thinking one day I will be forced to face the ultimate hardship alone.
It is amazing to me how quickly the American church by in large is growing smaller and having less and less impact on our society. I think 2013 marks the first year where out and out persecution of Christians has begun. The government has been flirting with the idea for years, but now judges are starting to rule that Christians who live by their faith must adapt to the society instead or pay a price. I expect this to get rapidly worse.
My parent's salvation is unknown. Even my wife's is at this point. The few friends that I have are scattered far away, and most of them are not Christians either. I can stand with my fellow Christians that I go to a Bible study with, but I think when persecution happens it will be every man and woman for themselves for the most part.
I don't want to be persecuted. I don't want to face troubles while those that I love stand by and watch with actual approving nods that I'm being punished somehow for what I believe. But I am almost expecting it at this point. It will be both a really sad day but also a great one as I will put all my trust into my Lord Jesus. By Him I stand or by Him I will fall. It will be just He and I as I go through what I am called to go through, just like it was just Him and the Father when Jesus chose to go to the cross. I hope that day, when and if it comes, will bring me closer to my Lord in a more intimate way than ever before. I hope Jesus's nearness to me will help me wither the sorrow of being alone and at the same time bring me hope for future Glory in His presence.
I don't know when this time will come, it could be years maybe even a decade or more away, but I hope that if and when it comes, that God will see me through and I honor Christ by forgiving my persecutors and witnessing and praying for the unsaved until my final moment.
