If I had been one of Jesus’ friends, would I have abandoned Him? I don’t know. Certainly the disciples were frightened for their lives. But some of his friends, both women and men stood by Him to the end. Since I don’t know how I would have reacted, I can only consider how I would stand up for Him today. If I were persecuted for my faith as so many are in this evil world, how would I fare?
In my adult life I have never been afraid of anything except momentarily. I have faced dangers in my airplane over unfriendly terrain and at night never giving it a thought. But have I ever been challenged by an overpowering force that gave me a choice of living or dying? No I haven’t and hope I never will. People in other parts of the world have been given this choice – give up your faith and live, or die a martyr. How would I react?
It is easy to say, as the disciples did before Jesus was sentenced to be crucified that I would never abandon our Lord. Over the centuries, we know that many were made martyrs by sticking to their faith -- and me?. I now know the choices -- either be with the Lord or be with Satan -- Forever! Knowing that, certainly I will endure whatever comes and choose Heaven over hell.
But the world has largely chosen hell, often without knowing it. If a person has never heard of Jesus, how can they choose Him? Although the Bible is clear that the only way to Heaven is by declaring allegiance to Christ, most people either do not know or believe this. Even if they have been told about Jesus, they still cannot bring themselves to accept Him. They believe they will have to give up too many worldly pleasures; or they aren’t even concerned about Him. To them, life after earthly existence or the fate of their soul is not a worry or anything to even think about.
I could have been one of these if I had not found Jesus in 2004 after reading the book ‘Heaven Is So Real’. What a momentous discovery for me at age 79! To think that before then I only thought about Jesus at Christmas, and soon He was forgotten again. Now I cannot imagine life without Christ being important. I have had a wonderful life and unknowingly was guided and helped by God all through my life. Would He have continued to help me if I had not finally turned to Christ? Maybe, but He may not have helped me into Heaven.
Sometimes we have some rain in our lives, and it would be hard to bear without Jesus being there for comfort and help. The troubles on one day seemed unsolvable. But after prayer at the end of the day I realized that there is nothing beyond help from Christ. This can be compared to having a fifty pound weight lifted from my shoulders except it is far more important.
In my ‘down’ moments I felt that the problems were too much for me and I was diverted from doing anything except to stew about them. I didn’t have the incentive to do much of anything including writing. Good, you say? But I turned to our wonderful Lord who quieted my fears. After that I knew that He is willing and able to help with all situations. I wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything this world offers. Yes, I know I will defend my faith in the Lord no matter what.
James L. Christiansen wrote: “The purpose of Christianity is not to avoid difficulty, but to produce a character adequate to meet it when it comes. It does not make life easy; rather it tries to make us great enough for life.”