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Key Bible Verse: If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink (Proverbs:25:21).
Bonus Reading:Samuel:26:13-25

It's natural to respond to life's difficulties with self-pity, focusing (often accurately) on the fact that we don't deserve it—"Why me?" Or we can easily become resentful either toward the person responsible for the suffering or toward God himself.

Middle Eastern Christians show us the necessity of developing a check-and-balance attitude. I once spent time with a Protestant pastor of one of the largest churches in Egypt. He's an expert on the doctrine and beliefs of Islam, the majority religion in his country. For years he's been summoned by the secret police for interrogation—often at the most inconvenient times, such as late at night or just before an international trip. Yet as he recounted these frustrating occurrences, it was obvious how much he cared for the police and has sincerely befriended them. He knows his interrogators by name and is concerned about their families. He even knows the desserts they like and sometimes, when summoned to the police station, takes them desserts his wife has made. The police don't know how to handle his kindness. In the midst of—or perhaps as a result of—these difficulties, he's absolutely radiant and doesn't have an ounce of anger or bitterness in him.

—Paul-Gordon Chandler in God's Global Mosaic

Would you suffer for God?

In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

—Thomas Fuller (author, 18th century)

Adapted from God's Global Mosaic (InterVarsity, 1997).

NOTE: For your convenience, God's Global Mosaic is available in the ChristianityToday.com Shopping Channel.

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Prayer for the Week

Father, give me a heart of love for the people You died for.

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