Are Your Kids Ready for Persecution

One of the great oversights that exists in the North American Church is regular teaching on the presence and inevitability of persecution against those who are followers of Jesus. Persecution is a reality for the majority of Christians worldwide, but because of our relative peace and well-being here we’ve come to expect that persecution won’t be something we ever face. Paul Estabrooks, who works with the persecuted church around the world, writes this: “With our hunger and thirst for righteousness comes the promise of persecution for those who take a stand for God. We have not been called to safety and comfort but to serve in the midst of conflict. Persecution is not to be strenuously avoided, for it is the result of righteous living. To avoid it, one would have to avoid living righteously.” Parents, we must prepare our kids with a proper perspective on persecution. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”