Real Bullets, Not Blanks
"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." — John 15:20
The Phone Call
A young pastor called, in tears. He and his congregation had recently begun taking real action against darkness in their city. He had been warned in advance that there would be a price, and he had not really listened.
"We're getting clobbered! We're being hit from every angle. I just found out yesterday that the pastors of seven other churches in our city are meeting once a week to pray against us. How can this be?"
"Didn't I tell you this battle was real? What did you expect — God to make Satan shoot only blanks instead of real bullets?"
And his answer is the most honest sentence in the whole exchange:
"No. But I did think the bullets would all simply fall harmlessly at our feet."
The Error in One Sentence
That single sentence sums up an enormous amount of what is wrong with the teaching in our churches.
We have absorbed the idea that a believer walking in obedience is insulated — that opposition may be launched but cannot land, that faith functions as a force field, that the faithful do not actually get hurt.
Jesus never promised anything of the kind. In fact He could hardly have been clearer:
"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." (John 15:20)
The measure is His experience, not our expectation.
What He Actually Endured
Jesus had no home. He was mocked. He was spat upon. He was betrayed by one of His own. He was beaten. And He was finally executed in the most agonizing manner then available.
That is the Lord. And the servant is not greater than the Lord.
So why do we begin to whine when we do not feel well? When we lose some sleep? When we suffer financial loss? When people turn against us?
Set the two lists side by side sometime. It is a bracing exercise.
Real Protection Versus Imagined Immunity
Do not swing to the opposite error. God genuinely protects His people, and He does it constantly and often invisibly.
He warns. He wakes people in the night. He redirects. He hedges about. Many victories are won in the spiritual world that we will never see.
But protection is not the same as immunity, and God's protection operates within His purposes rather than within our preferences. He kept His servants safe through an Easter attack — and then gave no relief at all from the ongoing battle.
Both are His.
Point to Ponder
"I thought the bullets would all simply fall harmlessly at our feet." That is the error in one sentence.
Verse to Remember
"The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." — John 15:20
Question to Consider
What did I secretly expect God to protect me from that He never promised to?
Today's Practice
Write out two lists side by side.
Left: what Jesus endured. Homelessness. Mockery. Betrayal by a friend. Being spat upon. Beating. Abandonment. Execution.
Right: what I have complained to God about this year. Be specific and honest. Tiredness. A financial setback. Someone's criticism. An inconvenience. A disappointment.
Look at both columns.
This is not an exercise in self-contempt. Your troubles are real and God cares about every one of them — He is interested in the smallest details of your life. But a right sense of proportion is one of the most stabilizing things a believer can have.
Then pray specifically: "Father, adjust my expectations. Where I have expected immunity, give me endurance instead."
Prayer
Father, I have expected a protected life and I have been offended when I did not get one.
I never said it out loud, but I believed that faithfulness would function as insulation — that opposition might be launched at me but could not land.
Your Son had no home. He was betrayed, mocked, beaten, and killed. And I have complained bitterly this year about things He would not have noticed.
Forgive me, and give me proportion.
Thank You for the real protection You give — the warnings, the redirections, the victories I will never see. Thank You for every bullet that genuinely did fall at my feet because You caused it to.
And for the ones that land: give me the grace to bear them without concluding that You have failed me. The servant is not greater than his Lord, and I do not want to be.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Protection is not immunity. God gives the first constantly and never promised the second.