Your own wickedness shall chasten and correct you, and your backslidings and desertion of faith shall reprove you. Know therefore and recognize that this is an evil and bitter thing: [first,] you have forsaken the Lord your God; [second,] you are indifferent to Me and the fear of Me is not in you, says the Lord of hosts.” Jeremiah 2:19 AMP

God uses trials or persecutions to teach us what obedience to His will is all about. Without some of the affliction we have been through in life or are still going through we will never know what it means to obey God. Some people can only be obedient to God Almighty when what they relied on has backfired on them.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly, And said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and You heard my voice. [Ps. 120:1; 130:1; 142:1; Lam. 3:55-58.] For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your waves and Your billows passed over me. [Ps. 42:7.] Then I said, I have been cast out of Your presence and Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple. [Ps. 31:22.]” Jonah 2:1-4 AMP

A great example is Jonah obedience to God’s call in the midst of distress. He disobeyed God when God commissioned Him to an assignment to go preach the gospel. Jonah could only answer this call when all what he knew stopped working.

Persecution brings us to the place of absolute obedience to God Almighty.

Let’s pray together:

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your word. Thank you for teaching me obedience through suffering in Jesus Christ mighty name. Amen.