Not quite paradise, but far better than the world

Scripture:
"Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Mark 10:29-31 NIV

Application:
Many of us have suffered ostracism because of our faith. Some people don't want to hear our words of faith or even receive our prayers. Don't think that these are strange reactions. This is why God had to send a Savior to the world. But what we receive in exchange for that ostracism is far, far better than caving to pressure and selling out into the world's evil. We're much, much better off. True, there are persecutions. But even now we're firm and established as joyful in a non-joyful set of surroundings.
And it only gets better in the future.

Prayer:
Encourage us every single time we feel sidelined, Lord, and help us build a stronger community of mutually-supportive Christians everywhere we go. Amen.