Today there are people who are filled with rage against the followers of Christ around the world.  Discussions resulting in plans are carried out to arrest, kill, destroy, imprison, torture, and/or burn places of worship and homes of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

  Rage also was aimed at Jesus, early in His ministry because He healed a man in a synagogue on the Sabbath.
(NASB) Luke 6:11 “But they themselves were filled with rage, and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.”

How are followers of Christ to deal with such rage from others?  Study God’s words, for He gives us guidance.  The following Scriptures are a few from the many which we can turn to:

(NIV) 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

Jesus understands troubles such as many of you may be facing…you are encouraged to keep your thoughts, your motives, your focus on the Lord Jesus Christ…He is the Savior Who has saved you from your sins.  He is also Immanuel, God with you, right at this moment in time.

What are we to remember in times of intense stress and persecution?
(NIV) 2 Corinthians 4:7-9 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

We are to show those who reveal rage, anger and hatred toward us, that we possess the divine Light of the Gospel in our frail bodies.  We are to show others that the grandeur and exceeding greatness is from God’s power and not from ourselves.  For we are to live a sacrificial life (like Jesus lived by dying to self) so that the resurrected life of Christ Jesus may be shown by how we respond to rage and hatred from God’s enemies.  (A loose paraphrase of the
Amplified Bible: 2 Corinthians 4:7, 10.)

What happens to the followers of Christ has happened to the Lord Jesus…and Jesus has won that battle!