The Bible tells us that when we commit ourselves to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll face many hardships. These hardships should be expected - it's a fact that we have an enemy who hates Jesus and will influence people to show hate to those who follow Him and His commands.

When we follow Jesus, we deny our flesh and its desires. We throw off sinful desires and live a new life with new standards of righteousness. As we live for Christ, we obey God's word and stop sinning. In fact, we now hate our sin, the ones we used to love doing before He saved us.

When we do this, our friends start to wonder about what's happened to us. They are surprised at the fact that we now dislike what they saw us doing before. Some of them may appreciate it, some will not. Some may even make fun of us.

1 Peter 4:1-4 explains this beautifully:

"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime[b] in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you."

Choosing to follow God through it all

Some of us feel bad that our friends aren't as friendly with us anymore. Some of us feel rejected by the very people we used to be with.

They don't like our stand on certain matters. They disagree with us on issues of morality and what's right and wrong. They think we're "holier-than-thou" simply because we don't say yes to compromise, to sin, to a little lie here and a little cheating there.

In short, they make living righteously in obedience and reverence to God a difficult thing for us. They make us feel bad for choosing what is good and pleasing to God. They make us feel bad for not giving in to our flesh and doing again what we have repented of.

But should we feel bad for not giving in to sin? Should we feel bad for saying "no" to an old friend's invitation to do worthless things again? Should we feel bad for having moral standards coming from the word of God?

No, we shouldn't.

Don't trade God for anything

Friends, we must not feel bad for choosing God over anything. We must not feel bad for choosing to do what He says. We must not feel bad for speaking what is true and right and Godly.

We must never ever feel bad that we followed Christ.

"But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men."" (Acts 5:29)