| FRIDAY 15TH APRIL, 2022
Our Daily Bread 2022 Annual Edition
By Amy Boucher Pye
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 27-29; Luke 13:1-22
Stand firm. Let nothing move you. 1 Corinthians 15:58
In the country where they live, Adrian and his family suffer persecution for their faith in Jesus. Yet, through it all, they demonstrate Christ’s love. Standing in his church courtyard, which was pummeled by bullets when terrorists used it as training ground, he said, “Today is Good Friday. We remember that Jesus suffered for us on the cross.” And suffering, he continued, is something that believers there understand. But his family chooses to remain: “We’re still here, still standing.”
These believers follow the example of the women who stood watching as Jesus died on the cross (MARK 15:40). They – including Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and Salome – were brave to remain, for friends and family members of an enemy of the state could be ridiculed and punished. Yet the women showed their love for Jesus by their very presence with Him. Even as they “followed him and cared for his needs” in Galilee (v.41), they stood with Him at His hour of deepest need.
On this day when we remember the greatest gift of our Savior, His death on a cross, take a moment to consider how we can stand for Jesus as we face trials of many kinds (SEE JAMES 1:2-4). Think too about fellow believers around the world who suffer for their faith. As Adrian asked, “Can you please stand with us in your prayers?”
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 (NIV)
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[b]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
INSIGHT
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What does standing for Christ look like in your neighborhood?
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How can you support persecuted believers around the world?