At this point many a Christian makes a mistake. He stands loyally for the truth, but he receives the persecution that comes for the truth with harshness, he grows bitter, he gets to condemning every one but himself. There is no blessing in bearing persecution in that way. Persecution should be borne meekly, lovingly, serenely. Don’t talk about your own persecutions. Rejoice in them. Thank God for them, and go on obeying God. And don’t forget to love and pray for them who persecute you (Matt. 5: 44).
If at any time the persecution seems harder than you can bear, remember how abundant the reward is, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us” (2 Tim. 2: 12). Every one must enter into the kingdom of God through much tribulation (Acts 14: 22), but do not go back on that account. Remember always however fiercely the fire of persecution may burn, “That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8: 18). Remember too that your light affliction is but for the moment, and that it worketh out for you “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4: 17). Keep looking, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are but for a time, but the things which are not seen are for eternity (2 Cor. 4: 18). When the apostles were persecuted, even unto imprisonment and stripes, they departed from the presence of the council that had ordered their terrible punishment, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Jesus, and they continued daily in the temple and every house teaching and preaching Jesus Christ (Acts 5: 40-42).
The time may come when you think that you are being persecuted more than others, but you do not know what others may have to endure. Even if it were true,—that you were being persecuted more than any one else, you ought not to complain but to humbly thank God that He has bestowed upon you such an honour. Keep your eyes fixed upon “Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind” (Heb. 12: 2, 3). I was once talking with an old coloured man who in the slave days had found his Saviour. The cruel master had him flogged again and again for his loyalty to Christ but he said to me, “I simply thought of my Saviour dying on the cross in my place, and I rejoiced to suffer persecution for Him.”