Jesus Christ walked boldly into Jerusalem and suffered all He predicted would happen to Him without shrinking back. Jesus also revealed that believers will go through similar experiences. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Mat. 5:11). We too must face our persecutions boldly without shrinking back. We will not instigate persecution for ourselves, but since it is inevitable, we will prepare ourselves to face it. My opinion is that we are not to pray generally against persecution, but we can plead with the Lord on specific situations as the Holy Spirit leads us. We are encouraged to pray for the grace to persevere in the face of persecution. As Jesus learned obedience from the things that He suffered (Heb. 5:8), we too can learn a lot from our travails, and we are blessed for standing firm.
