Psalm 119:161 – Persecuted

Princes have persecuted me without any reason,
Yet what I fear is your word.

A great deal in life comes down to priorities. What is it that makes me most afraid?

People frequently comment on how hard it is to talk to people about their faith. They wonder if people will get upset. Perhaps they’ll hurl insults or ridicule someone.

Now I have to confess that I don’t get a real choice about this. When I’m asked what I do I answer, “I own a Christian publishing company.” I’m now on the hook for my faith. I might feel like avoiding faith sharing for some reason, but it won’t work. If someone wants to insult me, there I am.

But what I find is that relatively few people, in fact vanishingly few, want to say nasty things to me. Some are sympathetic and compliment me on a great professional activity. Some are not Christians, and comment on that. Some will actually ask me about my faith. I feel l distinctly unpersecuted.

Other people may well have a different experience. It may often depend on what you choose to put first in conversation.

Now with some other Christians, things can get interesting, and here there is an important point. The Psalm here doesn’t saw whether these “princes” or “powerful people (NLT) are Israelites or not. Christians can get quite nasty.

I was talking about this today with a friend. People can get very uncomfortable when I talk about actual spiritual experience. “God spoke to me yesterday,” can put some other Christians on edge, even when I’m noting that what God said was to me. It wasn’t a message directed at them. It’s just “God spoke” that gets them upset. There’s also the notion of “prayer language.” Just the term can get people upset for various reasons.

What about a belief in present day miracles? Or variations in the way we understand miracles? There are so many things that we actually have a hard time discussing with one another. What about my reaction to the person who has a negative reaction when I say God has spoken to me?

The one thing we’re supposed to fear is God’s word, and most frequently when people encounter God or a messenger of God, their response is fear and the messages is “Fear not!” I suspect that God has something to say to you as well.

What is God saying (God’s word) to you today?

(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)