About this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to encourage your personal, daily walk with Jesus Christ, by seeing Him through the eyes of Mark Rodriguez. Updates will be made regularly so please subscribe. Most posts are taken from Mark's private journals or written by his mother unless otherwise noted.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

The Pain is Worth it


 August 2013

This year, I discovered that.  Jesus has been banging on the door of my heart this whole time, even when I was blatantly disobeying him.  No one has ever done that for me.  This year, I fell in love with Christ.  And suddenly I understood how much he has done for me.  And now, when people disappoint me, it hurts, but it doesn’t destroy me.  Because the God of everything beautiful will never leave me.  Since then, I’ve heard God talk so clearly.  Sometimes, he makes stuff clear through other people.  Most of the time, he shows me Bible verses that answer questions and unveil parts of his plan for me.  
 

Scary one he showed me recently Hechos 9:16  “Yo le mostrare cuanto tendra que padecer por mi nombre.” 
Acts 9:16 "I will show you how much you will suffer for my name."

In that moment, I felt God telling me that if I follow him with all my heart, people will hurt me. 
It’s not safe to follow Jesus.  I’m not exaggerating when I say you could die.  But there’s a passage I love in Acts 16
--Paul and his friend are beaten and thrown in jail

--But they’re sitting there singing praise to God

--God’s love for them feels so good that they just ignore the pain and the prison


So I can tell you, if you take this dangerous step, stop caring what others think, and worship God with all your heart, all the pain you receive for that will be worth it.  Because you will understand that the God of all Creation loves you and will never disappoint you.