Biblical Counseling for Women: Persecution 101

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20 (NASB)

The world is surely a place of conflict these days, isn't it? It seems that every day the news bring some new assault against our faith and our Lord. What is evil is being promoted as good, and what is good is being spoken of as being evil. The voices that speak these things are loud and far reaching, even to the ends of the civilized world.

I just re-learned this lesson recently after responding to something that was on our local news. One young man in our area is running for Homecoming Queen. He has decided he is a girl and has told the world about it over social media. The point of my commentary was that it is intellectually and factually dishonest to agree with this young man that he is a female, regardless of what he says, how he dresses, and most importantly how he feels. While my response to this news story was only factual, not overtly spiritual or emotional, I can’t say that for those who commented on what I said. The filthy, vile, hateful responses were breathtaking. Some of those who disagreed with me told me I was a bigot, others wished I would get cancer, that I would have children or grandchildren who would be sick, that I would be assaulted, and so on.

It is so easy to be pushed back by these forces for "change" and "progress" that we are faced with every day, and hard to stand firm against the tide. It is not always easy to pray for those folks and not to be hateful and retaliatory against them and their rhetoric. Hopefully, our desires are born out of righteousness and a zeal for truth but I suspect that too often we simply get angry and sin in that anger.

The sad reality is people without Christ will one day have to face God and account for what they have said and done in the flesh and in their thoughts. They will be held accountable for every wicked deed.

While the Christian will not face such a bar of judgment, that does not give us the right to hate or to store up that hate in our hearts toward them. We are to let no bitter root spring up (Heb. 12:15) so we do not defile and pollute those around us. Bitterness and sinful anger do not glorify God.

What is to be our role and response when this subject comes up? How can we approach the subject of transgender and sexual identity in ways that are gospel centered?

I believe it is unkind to allow someone to persist in believing a lie. If someone is being lied to, or is lying to themselves the kindest thing you can do is to gently confront them with the truth. While the truth may hurt and it may be unpopular, it is unkind to allow them to persist in a delusion. Wouldn’t it be much better to help them to accept reality? To embrace their God-given gender and work within it? To help them develop as people according to the plan of their Creator? God doesn’t make mistakes. Every person is created in His image and likeness, and every person is born according to His will exactly as He wanted them to be. This means male or female.

The rub really comes in when we bring God into the subject. People no longer like God and they don’t want Him to have anything to say about their lives or their choices. They want to be their own god and self-determine everything about themselves. What horrific idolatry to look God in the face and tell Him He screwed you up. To tell Him that He just got you all wrong. To tell Him you know better than He does about who you are supposed to be. The pomposity is absolutely astonishing.

Prayer is the most effective weapon of this warfare, yet it is the least used and most abused. Many truly don't want to pray for unbelievers and when they do pray for them the prayers are often focused on how the unbelievers can be affected to make our lives better. We fail to realize that a majority of unbelievers have not thought about Jesus or salvation through Him once in their entire lives. We forget that we were once just like them.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3 (NASB)

When we were regenerated by the grace of God we became His slaves (1 Cor.7:23) and we are now to do His bidding, not our own. The Lord God has asked us to stand firm against the tides of evil and to pray for those who perpetrate that evil. This will mean that you will have to wade into some uncomfortable waters. You will incur the wrath of people on Facebook, at work, school, or in your social circles. It is not easy to stand alone in the face of the cruel vitriol that will be hurled at you, but consider this: as a Christian, there is persecution in your future. You will have to be strong in the Lord to be able to withstand what is coming. Consider this practice.