Most people place their trust in mere words if the words say what they want to hear, they don't actually have to question or prove anything someone says as long as they just say it.
God is about substance and action, mere words mean nothing, they must be backed up with works.
To say " I am a Bible believer" and then fall into all the rules and traditions of men, show that our traditions mean more to us than God does.
Our job as believers is to seek the Word and ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom, that we would not pepper our understanding with human wisdom that works against the Lord.
Jeremiah 29:12-14 "…12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
He Only Hears the Prayers of Believers
Divorce and Remarriage the Nuclear Bomb
I have lived with for many years the affects of divorce and remarriage. My husband and I adopted four older children who came from abusive divorce situations.
From the moment they entered our home, they could not accept us as their parents, nor could the trust anyone. Their view of marriage was destroyed, even though they came into a home that valued it.
All of them today are either not married, having lived in shack up situations or are divorced. They had no grounding in terms of family for the first few formative years of their life, it made them resistant to any instruction.
As they grew into their teen years they resisted all boundaries and encouragement to improve or grow on any level.
Our attempts to find their particular bents and talents and guide them in those directions were met with anger and covert aggression. If we suggested a good way to go, even in the direction of their own talents, they would sabotage it merely because an adult thought it was a good idea.
This battle with our attempts to help them through their problems and guide them to become productive human beings was met with resistance and anger at every turn.
When a child has been damaged in this way by narcissistic parents, they learn not to trust anyone ever.
These are the consequences for the children of childish and selfish parents who say they care about their children but would do nothing that would make a life for them.
Divorce and remarriage has created this mess that devastated the children who were trained in the early formative years of their life to do what ever they want while fighting and scratching to resist instruction and guidance.
Sadly this same mentality is has been propagated on every level of our culture, from schools to churches. Let the selfish parents do whatever they want, make the excuse that they weren't Christians or they had a rough time in their life. Blah, blah, blah!!!!
I am weary of the whinny babies that make their excuses to ruin the lives of children merely because they are having a rough time. Yes, this is harsh, but then the lives of these children were horrid because of the adults who would not man up and act like adults.
As a culture we have become so soft on sin that we are willing to throw our children into the gutter just to be able to justify our sin. Shame, shame and shame on all those who are looking for excuses to bail out of their marriages while their children become more and more broken.
The divorce is bad enough as the children agonize over having only one absentee parent and every other weekend with someone they hardly know who should be called father or mother. That is hard enough on a child, they do not have two homes, they have no home. Then the selfish parents bring into the mix the second spouse, the one who couldn't possibly love the children as they should because they have no real connection to them except that they sleep in the same bed with their mother/father.
Remarriage causes resentment in children, they become angry when they see their parent with another person who has no connection to them. Has anyone noticed the rise in teen suicide these days, go and research it, then ask yourself the questions; "what on earth is going on with these kids."
The children have been taught to love themselves, they have no real purpose except to aggrandize themselves, then their parents do not love them enough to sacrifice their own happiness for their children, or make the effort to make a marriage work, their is no home they can call their own, the new spouses come in and make them feel even more isolated and distant from their parents.
Yep, we should be able to see clearly the mess we have made with all this self esteem and divorcing, not to mention the new honey, as the children see it, the interloper, who further takes away attention from the children.
But no, those who love their sin will not see it, they will continue in it because they have been taught to love themselves!
From the moment they entered our home, they could not accept us as their parents, nor could the trust anyone. Their view of marriage was destroyed, even though they came into a home that valued it.
All of them today are either not married, having lived in shack up situations or are divorced. They had no grounding in terms of family for the first few formative years of their life, it made them resistant to any instruction.
As they grew into their teen years they resisted all boundaries and encouragement to improve or grow on any level.
Our attempts to find their particular bents and talents and guide them in those directions were met with anger and covert aggression. If we suggested a good way to go, even in the direction of their own talents, they would sabotage it merely because an adult thought it was a good idea.
This battle with our attempts to help them through their problems and guide them to become productive human beings was met with resistance and anger at every turn.
When a child has been damaged in this way by narcissistic parents, they learn not to trust anyone ever.
These are the consequences for the children of childish and selfish parents who say they care about their children but would do nothing that would make a life for them.
Divorce and remarriage has created this mess that devastated the children who were trained in the early formative years of their life to do what ever they want while fighting and scratching to resist instruction and guidance.
Sadly this same mentality is has been propagated on every level of our culture, from schools to churches. Let the selfish parents do whatever they want, make the excuse that they weren't Christians or they had a rough time in their life. Blah, blah, blah!!!!
I am weary of the whinny babies that make their excuses to ruin the lives of children merely because they are having a rough time. Yes, this is harsh, but then the lives of these children were horrid because of the adults who would not man up and act like adults.
As a culture we have become so soft on sin that we are willing to throw our children into the gutter just to be able to justify our sin. Shame, shame and shame on all those who are looking for excuses to bail out of their marriages while their children become more and more broken.
The divorce is bad enough as the children agonize over having only one absentee parent and every other weekend with someone they hardly know who should be called father or mother. That is hard enough on a child, they do not have two homes, they have no home. Then the selfish parents bring into the mix the second spouse, the one who couldn't possibly love the children as they should because they have no real connection to them except that they sleep in the same bed with their mother/father.
Remarriage causes resentment in children, they become angry when they see their parent with another person who has no connection to them. Has anyone noticed the rise in teen suicide these days, go and research it, then ask yourself the questions; "what on earth is going on with these kids."
The children have been taught to love themselves, they have no real purpose except to aggrandize themselves, then their parents do not love them enough to sacrifice their own happiness for their children, or make the effort to make a marriage work, their is no home they can call their own, the new spouses come in and make them feel even more isolated and distant from their parents.
Yep, we should be able to see clearly the mess we have made with all this self esteem and divorcing, not to mention the new honey, as the children see it, the interloper, who further takes away attention from the children.
But no, those who love their sin will not see it, they will continue in it because they have been taught to love themselves!
God's Kind of Love
When we love someone, we recognize that they are not perfect, we accept the flaws as well as the good because it is the person that we love, not our idealized version of them. If we only love them when they do what we think they should do, then we are not loving at all, but hating, because hate says, if you do not do what I want you to do, then I will not accept and love you.
When we authentically love, we just do, even when we don't agree and even when someone falls, the love remains. The love is not based on performance, but on a bond that goes beyond actions.
We grieve when those we love do not walk uprightly, but we do not stop loving them. Often these days we must walk away because we cannot make anyone do as they should and our continual contact is a form of validation of their lifestyle when they are in sin.
We agonize in prayer over the things our loved ones do that will destroy them, or harm others, we never stop loving them, that's why we pray. However, we cannot stay in a person's life who does not value our love, does not value our God and does not value what God values. We cannot remain in the lives of those who hurt others having no conscience for it. These people must not be validated by our contact with them.
Sometimes the most powerful thing to do that causes us great pain, is the need to walk away and leave that one to God to deal with. When we see that all our efforts to reason with someone have failed, there is no change, there is no remorse, then we must walk on down the road as we exercise faith by leaving them to God.
It does take faith you know!!!! When we remain in the lives of those who will not seek God and will not want a change, we lack the faith that God can do it without us and we have ourselves a little too elevated, thinking we can do better than God or that He cannot do it without us.
There is some wisdom to the phrase "let go and let God." Perhaps we ought to say "release and believe God", since He is clear in His word that we should not keep company with those who are disobedient or who do not want to walk the same path that we walk.
Our world is continually validating the wicked for lack of consequences. It is backwards now, the wicked get the love to win them to Christ, or so goes the excuse, but the righteous are chastised for correcting the wicked and refusing to be a validating factor in their lives.
2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"
Now days our gatherings are boasting about how accepting of the sinning brother they are, and even their lack of disapproval of the world's antics shows their flippancy about sin. Our modern churches are acting the same way the Corinthians church did and look what God said to them:
1 Corinthians 5
"5 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate [g]with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
When we authentically love, we just do, even when we don't agree and even when someone falls, the love remains. The love is not based on performance, but on a bond that goes beyond actions.
We grieve when those we love do not walk uprightly, but we do not stop loving them. Often these days we must walk away because we cannot make anyone do as they should and our continual contact is a form of validation of their lifestyle when they are in sin.
We agonize in prayer over the things our loved ones do that will destroy them, or harm others, we never stop loving them, that's why we pray. However, we cannot stay in a person's life who does not value our love, does not value our God and does not value what God values. We cannot remain in the lives of those who hurt others having no conscience for it. These people must not be validated by our contact with them.
Sometimes the most powerful thing to do that causes us great pain, is the need to walk away and leave that one to God to deal with. When we see that all our efforts to reason with someone have failed, there is no change, there is no remorse, then we must walk on down the road as we exercise faith by leaving them to God.
It does take faith you know!!!! When we remain in the lives of those who will not seek God and will not want a change, we lack the faith that God can do it without us and we have ourselves a little too elevated, thinking we can do better than God or that He cannot do it without us.
There is some wisdom to the phrase "let go and let God." Perhaps we ought to say "release and believe God", since He is clear in His word that we should not keep company with those who are disobedient or who do not want to walk the same path that we walk.
Our world is continually validating the wicked for lack of consequences. It is backwards now, the wicked get the love to win them to Christ, or so goes the excuse, but the righteous are chastised for correcting the wicked and refusing to be a validating factor in their lives.
2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"
Now days our gatherings are boasting about how accepting of the sinning brother they are, and even their lack of disapproval of the world's antics shows their flippancy about sin. Our modern churches are acting the same way the Corinthians church did and look what God said to them:
1 Corinthians 5
"5 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate [g]with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
Christ Speaks of the Cross
Matthew 16:24-26 Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Marriage Passe as We Predicted
Marriage has become passe' and even to be avoided by many.
We predicted this 30 years ago, we were saying that because divorce was so rampant at that time, it won't be long before people are not bothering to marry, but will only live together.
We saw this coming because good sense shows us the next step. There didn't seem to be any shame over divorce and remarriage, as well as nearly total extended family acceptance of it. We were even chastised and excluded emotionally as family for not attending the wedding of divorced people or for even saying why we could not support it.
I say "excluded emotionally" because I was always invited but ignored, as though they felt obligated because I was family, but they really didn't want to engage with me in conversation. Perhaps because they knew our views were nearly opposite about everything.
Now here we are, the extended family is accepting shacking up, while calling their partner their "fiance", as though that makes it legitimate.
Now, believers dating non-believers seems normal and less sinful, if someone is not shacking up.
Why do believers who claim to be "Bible Believing", ignore all the warnings about believers being emotionally and spiritually connected to unbelievers?
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 "14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?"
2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"
Anyone who fanatically (intense enthusiasm and devotion to an ideal), warns a brother or sister in the Lord not to engage in dating non-believers, we are seen as the bad or mean ones. They will be labeled, while invited to family gatherings out of obligation completely being ignored. We are invited so we can see them ignoring us, a punishment of sorts for showing concern for someone with Words from God.
If you have ever been to one of these gatherings you know what it looks like. Many believers I have met as well as myself, have endured this form of dislike. Those who claim to be believers but walk superficially closely tied to and defending the world's ways, cannot stand the presence of one who wants to answer all questions according to the Bible.
These gatherings spout the same mantra's time after time, "Just love them", as though loving them means accepting everything they do that mocks God, just to make them like us. It is not as though believers walking around spouting the truth all the time, we generally wait until it confronts us and then we answer it. We warn once and hope someone heard us. Then as we are continually mocked for our one statement of truth, we withdraw and carry on without encouragement or kindness toward us.
It is always interesting to me when the truth teller is yelled at, that "we should love them", while no love or concern for us is expressed. Does it not seem as though a person who "loves" would not pick and choose who they treat respectfully, but would treat all in their presence with respect.
The love of Christ warns of sin so that the believer may redirect their path to begin again to follow Christ, this is God's kind of love.
Not only is the believer treated with disrespect, they are accused of not respecting others for their honesty and Biblical views.
We have a choice, we can follow Christ, desiring to please Him, or we can follow the clique in our families or churches and become popular because we ignore God's principles.
We live in a world that thinks as long as we "say" we are Bible Believers, we actually are, but the reality is that if we do not stand firm for the principles of God, while treating them like they are suggestions that might be better but are not necessary, then we are in disobedience and rebellion.
1 Samuel 5:21-23 "…21"But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal." 22Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23"For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king."…"
It is idolatry to treat God's principles as optional, why? Because when we choose not to obey them out of rebellion toward Him, then "ourselves" are the idol. We place ourselves above God whenever we choose our own way over God's way.
And, yes, it is rebellion to take a scripture out of context to make it say what we want it to say, to justify our sin.
This has been a common experience of my life and the lives of many others who have wanted to deeply adhere to God's principles. Our heart desires truth more than popularity, so we speak it when in conversation, all other views in the conversation that are not godly are accepted, but the one view that focuses on Christ is the one that is not accepted.
I trust the leading of the Holy Spirit in these matters, if we hear the Lord telling us to "come out from among them", we should obey that. He does not want us to continually battle those who will not listen, especially if they claim Christianity.
Matthew 10:13-15 "…13 If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.…'
We have a choice as believers, we can live for Christ or we can give it all up to be popular. I am here to tell you that the "popular" life is an emptiness, intolerable egg shell walking life, it will never satisfy those who love Christ. And, you will never be popular if you are a fanatic for Christ. If everything you do, think and say is about Him, then you will be continually rejected. They will reject you before they know you because of the Holy Spirit in you that convicts them of sin.
John 16:8-9 "8 And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me;…"
If they cannot see a reason for their dislike of you, they will make one up.
Do you want to continually battle depression and meaninglessness, you will if you choose the life of "popularity" with unbelievers or superficial believers. Sadly many people go this route and never find peace.
Yes, it is not easy enduring the mocking and hatred of the world, but for those who have endured it to follow Christ have greater joy and peace alone with Him than they could ever know in those superficial and meaningless cliques that appear so happy. They are not happy, the people in them are in constant fear of saying or doing the thing that will make them unpopular.
When we lose our fear of man to follow Christ we walk in victory, never worried about someone's reaction to us. We seek Christ and obey Him, then we are continually at peace no matter what anyone else does to us.
1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.…"
We predicted this 30 years ago, we were saying that because divorce was so rampant at that time, it won't be long before people are not bothering to marry, but will only live together.
We saw this coming because good sense shows us the next step. There didn't seem to be any shame over divorce and remarriage, as well as nearly total extended family acceptance of it. We were even chastised and excluded emotionally as family for not attending the wedding of divorced people or for even saying why we could not support it.
I say "excluded emotionally" because I was always invited but ignored, as though they felt obligated because I was family, but they really didn't want to engage with me in conversation. Perhaps because they knew our views were nearly opposite about everything.
Now here we are, the extended family is accepting shacking up, while calling their partner their "fiance", as though that makes it legitimate.
Now, believers dating non-believers seems normal and less sinful, if someone is not shacking up.
Why do believers who claim to be "Bible Believing", ignore all the warnings about believers being emotionally and spiritually connected to unbelievers?
2 Corinthians 6:14-15 "14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?"
2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"
Anyone who fanatically (intense enthusiasm and devotion to an ideal), warns a brother or sister in the Lord not to engage in dating non-believers, we are seen as the bad or mean ones. They will be labeled, while invited to family gatherings out of obligation completely being ignored. We are invited so we can see them ignoring us, a punishment of sorts for showing concern for someone with Words from God.
If you have ever been to one of these gatherings you know what it looks like. Many believers I have met as well as myself, have endured this form of dislike. Those who claim to be believers but walk superficially closely tied to and defending the world's ways, cannot stand the presence of one who wants to answer all questions according to the Bible.
These gatherings spout the same mantra's time after time, "Just love them", as though loving them means accepting everything they do that mocks God, just to make them like us. It is not as though believers walking around spouting the truth all the time, we generally wait until it confronts us and then we answer it. We warn once and hope someone heard us. Then as we are continually mocked for our one statement of truth, we withdraw and carry on without encouragement or kindness toward us.
It is always interesting to me when the truth teller is yelled at, that "we should love them", while no love or concern for us is expressed. Does it not seem as though a person who "loves" would not pick and choose who they treat respectfully, but would treat all in their presence with respect.
The love of Christ warns of sin so that the believer may redirect their path to begin again to follow Christ, this is God's kind of love.
Not only is the believer treated with disrespect, they are accused of not respecting others for their honesty and Biblical views.
We have a choice, we can follow Christ, desiring to please Him, or we can follow the clique in our families or churches and become popular because we ignore God's principles.
We live in a world that thinks as long as we "say" we are Bible Believers, we actually are, but the reality is that if we do not stand firm for the principles of God, while treating them like they are suggestions that might be better but are not necessary, then we are in disobedience and rebellion.
1 Samuel 5:21-23 "…21"But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal." 22Samuel said, "Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23"For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king."…"
It is idolatry to treat God's principles as optional, why? Because when we choose not to obey them out of rebellion toward Him, then "ourselves" are the idol. We place ourselves above God whenever we choose our own way over God's way.
And, yes, it is rebellion to take a scripture out of context to make it say what we want it to say, to justify our sin.
This has been a common experience of my life and the lives of many others who have wanted to deeply adhere to God's principles. Our heart desires truth more than popularity, so we speak it when in conversation, all other views in the conversation that are not godly are accepted, but the one view that focuses on Christ is the one that is not accepted.
I trust the leading of the Holy Spirit in these matters, if we hear the Lord telling us to "come out from among them", we should obey that. He does not want us to continually battle those who will not listen, especially if they claim Christianity.
Matthew 10:13-15 "…13 If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.…'
We have a choice as believers, we can live for Christ or we can give it all up to be popular. I am here to tell you that the "popular" life is an emptiness, intolerable egg shell walking life, it will never satisfy those who love Christ. And, you will never be popular if you are a fanatic for Christ. If everything you do, think and say is about Him, then you will be continually rejected. They will reject you before they know you because of the Holy Spirit in you that convicts them of sin.
John 16:8-9 "8 And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me;…"
If they cannot see a reason for their dislike of you, they will make one up.
Do you want to continually battle depression and meaninglessness, you will if you choose the life of "popularity" with unbelievers or superficial believers. Sadly many people go this route and never find peace.
Yes, it is not easy enduring the mocking and hatred of the world, but for those who have endured it to follow Christ have greater joy and peace alone with Him than they could ever know in those superficial and meaningless cliques that appear so happy. They are not happy, the people in them are in constant fear of saying or doing the thing that will make them unpopular.
When we lose our fear of man to follow Christ we walk in victory, never worried about someone's reaction to us. We seek Christ and obey Him, then we are continually at peace no matter what anyone else does to us.
1 John 2:15-16 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.…"
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