If You Are Criticized For The Name Of Christ, You Are Blessed!

 Nobody wants to endure suffering, pain, or persecution. None of us like it when we are disparaged or denigrated by friends or acquaintances, and yet Peter teaches us: "If You Are Criticized For The Name Of Christ, You Are Blessed! If you are ridiculed, insulted, or hated for His name's sake you are favored people because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."
 There is a vast difference, however, between the suffering that comes because one is a Christian and the suffering that comes through evildoing. The suffering we endure for Christ's sake today, has a purifying effect. It refines us and purifies us in our Christian walk as we are conformed into the likeness of Christ. The suffering the ungodly will face are the fires of judgement which will serve as punishment for their rejection of the truth.
 Although we do not glorify God FOR the suffering we have to endure, we ought to glorify God IN our suffering and we should glorify Him for all that He will accomplish THROUGH our pain and persecution. Those of us that do are blessed. 
1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Our United Prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You that Christ identified with us so that we can be identified with Him. If, by identifying with Him and lifting His name high we suffer, may we not be ashamed but count it as a blessing. We want to know Him more, to know the power of His Resurrection, and to participate in His sufferings so that we may become more like Him in His death. In Jesus' name we Pray, AMEN.