“Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” Psalm 44:22
Christians sometimes suffer for their own sins to move them back to repentance and faith. But even when they are faithful to Christ and His Word, they are opposed and persecuted in this world. They suffer, they are killed, and they “are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” Why? Because the people of this world hate them for their witness to the teaching of the Bible — for their warnings of God’s judgment and their calling upon all to repent of their evil ways and look to Christ Jesus and His cross for mercy and forgiveness.
O God, grant that I do not suffer because of my own sinfulness but that I faithfully follow You and Your Word and endure the persecution of this world in the hope of the everlasting joys of heaven which were purchased for me with Christ’s blood, shed on the cross for the sins of the world. Amen.
[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]