This is a letter from one a fellow 99.
How are you really doing? I know the honest answer would be, “I’m tired.” Tired of explaining yourself. Tired of being misunderstood. Tired of being called names just because you refuse to bend the truth. It hurts more than we admit.
Some days it feels like the more clearly we speak, the harder it becomes for them to hear. Not because the truth is weak, but because hearts have grown resistant to it. Scripture already warned us of this: “By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive” (Matthew 13:14).
So no, you are not failing. The truth has not lost its power. The world simply loves its sin, and light is uncomfortable to those who have settled into darkness. This is not rejection of you, it is resistance of the truth and you are not alone in this too.
The apostles told us this road would be heavy. Peter spoke to believers who were worn down and hurting, and he said:
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you” (1 Peter 4:12).
Paul was even more direct:
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Corinthians 4:8).
This life was never meant to feel comfortable for those who follow Jesus closely. We are here, but we don’t quite fit. We love people deeply, yet we cannot celebrate what destroys them. And that tension costs us something every time.
When we speak against sin, we are called unloving. When we choose love, it is misunderstood as weakness. And sometimes we wonder: “wouldn’t it be easier to stay quiet?“
Should we then choose silence so we may be loved? Far be it from us.
We love them too much to lie to them. We love them too much to abandon them to darkness. So we continue loving, speaking truth with grace, and praying that many will yet come into the light. Paul wrote:
“Speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).
And when the weight feels like too much, let us lift our eyes and remember the promise that makes every wound worthwhile.
Paul called our present suffering “light” when compared to that glory:
“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
So please do not give up.
The Savior is not coming only for the 1. He’s coming for the 99 too. He is coming for the full hundred. He is coming for us.
And before He went to the cross, He prayed not only for the twelve, but for us.
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
That they all may be one…
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (John 17:20–21, 15).
You were on His heart before the nails pierced His hands.
So stand firm, beloved 99.
Keep loving.
Keep speaking truth.
Keep praying.
Cry if you must. But don’t let go.
We’re still here.
And He is still coming.
Yours faithfully,
Fellow 99.
