God often allows problems to enter people’s lives in order to facilitate His initial plans. For example, God had already expressed His desire to Abram for him to separate from his kindred. For various reasons, Abram had not obeyed God up until this point. In order to bring about God’s desired will, He allowed conflict to enter between the herdmen of Abram and those of Lot. The solution to this unnecessary conflict was quite simple. Abram suggested that they part ways (God’s initial plan) and Abram turned toward the land of Canaan (God’s initial plan). The Lord used the same tactic in the early church to get them to spread out and to preach His word outside of Jerusalem (see Acts 1:8 and Acts 8:1).
Throughout the years, faithful saints have been willing to lay down their lives for the truth. In Acts chapter 7, we read the account of Stephen’s final message to the nation of Israel. His message infuriated the people so much that they ran upon him and threw stones at him until they crushed the life out of his body. Stephen was martyred because he cared more for the truth's propagation than even his own life and welfare. Though most Christians are not living amongst such severe persecution, our willingness to contend should remain just as fervent. We should pray that God would give us some modern believers who, like Paul, would say, “that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Philippians 1:20)!
