God Won't Forget

Peter said to Jesus, "We left everything to follow you!" Jesus said, "I tell you the truth. Every person that has left his home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or farm for me and for the Good News will get a hundred times more than he left. Here in this world that person will get more homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and farms. And with those things, that person will have persecutions. But he will also have a reward in the world that is coming. That reward is life forever. Many people that have the highest place now will have the lowest place in the future. And the people that have the lowest place now will have the highest place in the future." Jesus and the people with him were going to Jerusalem. Jesus was leading the people. Jesus' followers were amazed. But those people that followed behind them were afraid. Jesus gathered the twelve apostles again and talked with them alone. Jesus told them what would happen in Jerusalem. Jesus said, "We are going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be given to the leading priests and teachers of the law. The priests and the teachers of the law will say that the Son of Man must die. They will give the Son of Man to the non-Jewish people. Those people will laugh at him and spit on him. They will beat him with whips and kill him. But on the third day after his death, he will rise to life again."


Jesus is basically promising three things in this Scripture. First, he is saying that the disciples -- and we who follow Jesus today -- can't out give God. God will bless them and us far more than we could ever give up for him. Second, that doesn't mean that followers of Jesus will have easy lives on this side of eternity -- there will be persecutions. Finally, he promises eternal life. In other words, their sacrifices for their faith will be far overshadowed by the blessings they will receive from their Father in heaven.

Today's Prayer

O Father, thank you for being so generous. I know that I will be blessed far more than I can imagine as one of your children. Help me not to lose that hope in the face of hardship, discouragement, and persecution. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.