"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" Romans 12:2

Nine years ago, while a friend and I were going through a challenging situation, he asked me an interesting question: Would we have accepted Christ in our lives if we had known that the Christian life was not easy? I did not have an answer to the question at that time but with the few years I have spent in his word, I can confidently reply with ‘yes’ now because life has not been easy for any servant of God in the Bible.

For example, in the book of Daniel 3, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had a very challenging situation in Babylonia where they had been forced to serve another god than Jehovah. They were outside their country and they could easily have taken advantage of the fact that not many people knew them there to exercise some flexibility in their worship. However, they decided to keep their conviction, regardless what it would cost them. More than two millennia later, the Disciples of Christ that you and I are, have to go through similar situations. While all sectors of this world whether it is economy, politics, academia, or media are led by Non-Believers with priorities that differ from ours, we Christians are constantly facing challenges; we sometimes believe we cannot live in this world without compromising ourselves. The funny thing is that many servants of God also faced these challenges and the story of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah should be a lesson for us.

Actually, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were not the only ones who won that battle. In the Book of Daniel 6, Daniel’s faith had been tested while he was supposed to worship another God at the price of his life. Joseph’s value/conviction was tested when his master’s wife was leading him into adultery (Geneses 39: 7- 13) The purpose of this message is not to condemn but rather to remind us all that we should not conform to the pattern of this world. Remember, in the three stories mentioned above, all of these men were in alien lands, outside their own countries and could have used that as an excuse to easily compromise as very few people knew them there.

May the Lord give us the strength to fight the good fight of faith in public and in secret (1 Timothy 6 V 12) and keep our values and convictions consistent wherever we are.