Romans 13:8 ‘Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law’

DAILY READING; Mark 1:1-20; 2 Samuel 2:1-3:1; Daniel 1

During the transatlantic slave trade, many black slaves rejected Christianity because of the oppressions they suffered at the hands of white slave masters who claimed to be ‘Christians’.
However God used a young black girl named Rebecca Protten, to bring the truth of the Gospel to these skeptical black slaves. Rebecca Protten helped to found one of the earliest African Protestant churches.

Rebecca was sold into slavery at a very young age around 1718, in the West Indies. However when her white master came to truly know Christ, he also converted young Rebecca to Christianity and freed her from slavery.
With her new found freedom, young Rebecca was determined to take the Bible’s liberating message to people of African descent. She joined a group of German missionaries from the Moravian Church in 1736, who taught her more about Christ.
Rebecca’s travels took her to many black slave quarters where she proclaimed salvation to the domestic servants, cane boilers, weavers, and cotton pickers.
She also taught at a church that held popular nightly meetings where black men and women thronged to hear the gospel.

In the course of her work, Rebecca faced a lot of oppositions from the white slave masters. More painfully, she suffered injustice and maltreatment from her fellow black people, some of whom were jealous of her status as a ‘free’ slave. She was maligned, maltreated and spoken against. However she responded with love to those who opposed her.
She never allowed the attacks to deter her rather she remained focused on her mission and was able to inspire the rise of black Christianity in the Atlantic world.
Her missions work brought her to the Gold Coast in 1756. She worked with her husband in Ghana until her death in 1780 at the age of 62. The movement she inspired led to the conversion of many black slaves to Christianity. She would come to be known as the “Mother of Modern Missions” and also the “Mother of the Black Reformation.”

If Rebecca had minded the oppositions she would have lost her position in history today.
To fulfill your course you must keep focused on your mission. Don’t get involved in battles that are not between you and your destiny.
The truth is that most of the conflicts that come our way are distractions. The enemy often tries to use contrary people and situations to get you off-course. If you keep focusing on who is speaking against you, or who doesn’t like you, you will eventually lose sight of your vision and miss your mission in life.

People have a right to their opinion. You also have the right to ignore it. Your calling is not to focus on people’s opinion, your calling is to look unto Jesus and run the race before you. When your focus is right, God will take care of the critics and the naysayers.
The only thing we owe people is to always show them love.

Romans 13:8 says ‘Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law’

As believers, we must do everything we can to share the love of Christ with all who come our way. However, no matter what you do, there are still those who will oppose you.
The truth is that in life, not everybody is destined to like you or be for you. If you don’t understand this, you may go through unnecessary pain and feelings of rejection wondering why some people just won’t like you.

In the drama script of your life, people have been assigned different roles to play. There are those who will love you and there are those who will oppose you.
In the life of Jesus, the role of opposition and betrayal was assigned to Judas.
Without the betrayal of his brothers, Joseph would have never made it to Egypt to help preserve the Israelites during the famine. If King Saul had been supportive of David, there may have been no throne for David to ascend.
Though Sanballat and Tobias constantly opposed and insulted Nehemiah when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah refused to be upset, rather he continued to seek God and focused on his assignment until the walls were rebuilt.
In the same way, if you will learn to ignore the oppositions and focus on obeying God’s call, you will eventually walk into the fullness of His plan and see the manifestation of the glorious destiny He preordained for you.

Always remember that when the story of your life is told, what will matter most will not be the oppositions you faced, but rather how well you ran your race and finished your course.

PRAYER: Lord, I thank You for the grace to always share Your love with all who come my way. Please help me not to be distracted by oppositions, rather by Your grace I will run my race well and end up as a wonder this year in Jesus Name

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God knows how to work everything together in your life for your own good. WORDBITE 222.