Here is a list of benefits of persecution and suffering if we respond well:
(These are taken from the verses quoted in the blog series.)
Position us to bless others
Test and refine and prove us and our faith
Give us hope
Show us God’s love is unstoppable and He is good and is all we need
Show us God is listening and is near
Bless us
Comfort us
Equip us to comfort others
Prepare us to inherit the Kingdom of heaven
Increase our reward in heaven
Discover our true and real life in the Lord
Help us know Jesus more intimately
Help us become more like Christ and identify with Him more fully
Help us gain more of Jesus’ character
Demonstrate the permanency and power of God’s love for us
Save our lives
Cause us to bear more fruit
Teach us peace
Teach us to hope in our future eternal comfort and blessing
Demonstrate God’s trust in us and honor of us
Give us joy
Announce God’s message broadly
Encourage others in their faith
Show our love to our brothers and sisters in the faith
Shows our worthiness for the Kingdom
Makes room for God’s justice
Shows God’s power in us
Demonstrates God’s life in us
Foreshadows our future glorification (like Jesus’ resurrection)
Causes others to be drawn to the Lord
Results in thanksgiving from others for our sacrificial ministry
Renews us day by day through the Lord
Earns eternal reward
Proves our genuineness
Validates our ministry
Validates our words
Makes our lives known
Enriches the lives of others
Shows where our true riches are, where our hearts are
Keeps us humble
Gives us perseverance, godly character, and hope
Honors us
Shows we are God’s children and heirs of His glory
Demonstrates our conquering lives in the Lord
Advances the gospel
Gives confidence to fellow-believers
Demonstrates our faith in the Lord, which is our righteousness
Shows us the power of Jesus’ resurrection, and helps us share in it
Provides access to Jesus’ life and helps us reign with Him in eternity
Gives us strength to stand
Crowns us with glory and honor
Perfects us
Teaches us obedience
Causes the Lord to be especially attentive to our prayers
Enables us to experience better and lasting possessions
Is a pathway to receive God’s promises
Is the way of salvation
Shows the world is not worthy but the Lord is
Is an opportunity for amazing victories that will glorify the Lord
Is a way the Lord teaches us discipline
Grows us in holiness
Produces a harvest of righteousness and peace in our lives
Produces endurance and perfects us and makes us complete in the Lord
Enables God to demonstrate His compassion and mercy
Proves the genuineness of our faith
Results in praise, glory and honor to the Lord
Helps us find favor with God
Fulfills our calling
Shames the enemies of the Kingdom
Helps free us from sin’s allure
Causes us to live more fully for God’s will and desires
Increases our future joy
Increases the glory of God in our lives and the fullness of the Holy Spirit
Will result in our restoration, strengthening, firmness, and steadfastness
Results in our receiving the victor’s crown
Achieves God’s good purposes in our lives
Desired Responses to persecution and suffering for doing what is right:
Think about God’s perspective on it
Wait for the Lord and rely on Him for relief
Hope in the Lord and seek Him
Quietly submit to the Lord
Humbly respond to the Lord and to the human agents
Do not grumble or complain
Examine our lives
Worship the Lord
Call out to the Lord
Do not fear
Mourn
Commit our lives to a life of difficult service
Do not be distracted from Kingdom purposes
Seek to please the Lord in the midst of it
Act righteously, even when it will result in persecution
Rejoice greatly
Be glad
Do not resist evil people acting against you
Love your enemies
Pray for those who persecute you
Love God more than anyone, including family members
Count the Lord as more important than anything in life
Be willing to sacrifice everything for Christ
Deny your own will and desires and serve Christ’s purposes daily
Do not be selfish or conceited
Humbly consider others as more important than yourself and serve their interests
Do not use your position to your advantage but rather to serve others
Humble yourself by being willing to suffer for others benefit
Be encouraged
Continue proclaiming the good news of Jesus publicly and privately
Continue teaching others about the Kingdom life publicly and privately
Promote the Kingdom wherever you go
Welcome instruction about the Kingdom even when it leads to suffering
Model service despite suffering for other believers
Imitate followers of Christ who suffer well for serving the Lord
Persevere, demonstrate faith, and endure
Be filled with the Spirit
View the trials as identification with Christ and for His sake
Continue to speak the truths of the Kingdom that you have believed
Do not lose heart
Fix your eyes on the unseen and eternal realities rather than your present situation
Do not cause others to stumble
Show great endurance through every kind of unpleasant circumstance and situation
Live out purity, understanding, patience and kindness
Demonstrate a Spirit-filled life of sincere love, truthful speech and godly power
Show forth righteous living in spiritual warfare in the face of any response
Be content with being considered false, being beaten, poor, sorrowful and dying
Work hard for the Kingdom
Be willing to face every kind of difficulty, danger, discomfort, and sorrow
Be concerned for others welfare
Boast in your weakness
Delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties
Glory in your sufferings
Share in Christ’s sufferings
Consider yourself to be a sheep to be slaughtered and sacrificed
Be willing to lose your freedom
Count any and every earthly thing as a loss compared to knowing Christ
Participate in Jesus’ suffering and death willingly
Intentionally suffer through self-discipline as a sacrifice of service
Seek to please the Lord
Consider your service and sacrifice as the “least you can do”
Die to self with Jesus
Persevere
Practice the Lord’s commands
Serve as Christ’s ambassador and represent His desires and ways to others
Fervently pray with cries and tears to the Lord for His relief
Reverently submit to God
Remember God’s faithfulness in past suffering
Stand with others who are suffering and join them in it
Joyfully accept the confiscation of your property
Live by faith
Do not shrink back from serving or speaking for the Lord
Choose to be mistreated with God’s people rather than hiding your citizenship to escape
Value the treasures of God more than the treasures of this world
Embrace any sacrifice the Lord calls on you to make
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
Keep God’s commands
Welcome and choose every form of opposition and pain and discomfort for God’s sake
Resist and struggle against sin, even to death
Do not make light of discipline
Do not lose heart
Endure hardship, knowing its benefits
Respect God and submit to Him
Consider it pure joy
Let endurance have its full result
Be patient and persevere
Bear up under unjust suffering
Patiently endure unjust suffering
Do not commit sin or deceive to escape it.
Do not lash out at those causing you pain
Do not threaten
Entrust yourself to God who will judge righteously
Do not fear threats or be frightened
Revere Christ as Lord
Be prepared to give a witness for your hope, with gentleness and respect
Arm yourself with the purpose to suffer as Christ did and with His attitude
Do not be surprised at fiery ordeals and tests, they are expected and normal
Rejoice at the opportunity to share in Jesus’ sufferings
Be alert and of sober mind
Resist the devil, firm in your faith
Be aware that believers around the world are suffering for their faith
Do not be afraid of future suffering
Be faithful to the point of death
