Suffering for Being a Christian

"If you suffer as Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name."
(Peter 4:16)

"So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good."
(Peter 4:19)


These 2 verses explains that if you are suffering for being a christian, such as: being mocked, lost friends, treated differently, and other things that you feel may have gone wrong ever since you became christian or something that you've always faced for being a christian, do not be ashamed of it, but continue doing what you're doing and praise Him. In fact, you should boast God.

When I started heading towards God, I actually went through some things I've never encountered before. I would actually consider these incidents as one of my depressing times, because I've never had issues like these in my life before.

I've actually lost some friends because I started going to church more and being more involved. I had to go through some really unnecessary drama. It got to the point where I felt like I had no friends... and it was during my senior year of High School too, which is horrible. They thought I've chosen my church friends over them and one actually argued with me by saying "How long have you known these people, a couple of months? You've known us longer and you choose them over us". Goodness gracious, obviously I fought over it because it wasn't like that. It didn't make sense to me because some of them SHOULD know better than that. I just went to Flushing (where my church was located) during the weekends. The rest of the week, we had school, so I saw them everyday. The weekend was always booked, because I would go on Saturdays, the only day I was able to go because the bus runs during that day (not Sundays) and I would end up sleeping over at my friend's house so I could go to church the next day. I would go to school and not talk to anybody, not my usual crew at least. We would have awkward "hellos" or sometimes, we don't even say anything or even look at each other! I just wanted the day to end and always looked forward for the weekends. The weekends felt like a get away to me. I just couldn't wait to go to church and see my church friends.

Towards the end of Senior year was just horrible. Especially my graduation, I had a depressing one. I didn't even get to spend it with my Senior friends. I was the only one who wasn't able to hang with them, but they did. I didn't even see a lot of them during graduation either. I just wanted to feel relieved that all of this drama would be over and that I would just look forward to making new friends in college. Later on during that day, I hung out with an old close friend who actually came by to see me graduate, all the way from Georgia, which REALLY made my day, as well as a surprise graduation from my fellow brothers and sister in Christ :). I was really grateful! It was the best surprise ever!... but in the back of my mind, I was still sort of sad that I couldn't spend it with the people I originally wanted to spend it with.

Then I started to have these "sleep paralysis" experiences. I always felt a demonic vibe whenever it happened. As if someone was on top of me, hold me down, and trying to strangle me type of thing. I would be gasping for air and sometimes I'd be sweating a river and got my heart jumpin' like crazy. Once, I actually saw something hovering over me, which was just a white fog... thank God it was only ONCE! These things just straight up bothered my slumber! It only happened in my sleep though, and I'd have them almost everyday. I started to think that my room was possessed or something. Sometimes, if it really bothered me, I'd call my cousins to talk about it and they would always tell me to pray. I'd pray before I go to sleep and when I do, I sleep peacefully.

One day, I shared this to my friend and he said, he went through to a very similar situation. He told me his stories and his sounded a lot freakier than mine. Then he told me how he told Pastor about this. My friend suggested that whenever it happens, say "In the name of Jesus Christ, be gone" and that it worked. Honestly, I thought it felt a little bogus. In my mind, I said to myself.. "Nahhh.... that's silly". When that sleep paralysis happened again, I automatically said "In the name of Je-Je-Jes-" and before I can finish my sentence, it vanished! I was like man! His name is POWERFUL. I told Pastor about this too... like months later when it stopped. He asked me when this all happened and etc. Then he said "This was during the time when you just started going to church right?" I was like "Yeah? what about?" then he explained that the devil was trying to pull me away from God, because I was heading towards the light, the devil was losing me, so he did everything he could to pull me away from Him by going through all that drama with my friends and other stuff like that... even to the point of even bothering my spiritually in my sleep. Which made sense to me because I never had it before until I started going to church.

You know what, ever since I moved forward with God, everything's going gravy again. Everything's SLOWLY going into place with my friends. One by one, I was able to rekindle some friendships which was really nice and a blessing.

See?! MANNNN, GOD IS GOOD! Even though we may go through some hardships along the run, God will make it right in the future. Just be patient and focus in trying to know more about Him. So do not be ashamed and continue to do good :) just put everything in His hands.... because in God's hands is in GOOD hands!

Amen :D