Stand for Truth

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

I’m neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I don’t speak prophetically. But it doesn’t take prophetic credentials to understand that the world is putting pressure on Christians and Christianity like never before. We see it more outside of our great country, but don’t think for a minute that we are, or will be, exempt from demonic hatred. 

In history past, some have been martyred for their faith, while others were willing to hold tenaciously to the truth despite threats to their lives and livelihood. While not losing their lives, they had the same single-minded devotion to Christ that the martyrs had. 

Allow me to tell you about one such character, Athanasius. He was the bishop of Alexandria.

He battled the heresy of Arianism, named after a well known theologian in the church. Arias taught that the Son of God was not fully God, but a godlike creature—God’s first creation. According to Arianism, “there was a time when the Son was not.” However, Athanasius continued declaring that the Son is homoousious (the same essence) with the Father, therefore fully God in His own right.

Holding to that truth came at a cost. His bishopric lasted 45 years (from 328-373), of which over 17 were spent in exiles ordered by four different Roman rulers.

I am grateful for his strong defense of orthodoxy. He stood against heretics in the church and the power of Rome, thereby helping us understand what Scripture teaches about Jesus.

I hope this short eDevotion will encourage you to stand for the truth of God’s Word even if it is costly. I am praying to that end. Keep a loose grip on the things of this world that you never abandon your first love, Jesus—God in human flesh!

If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. John 15:18