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Key Bible Verse: The godly will rejoice when they see injustice avenged. … Then at last everyone will say … "surely there is a God who judges justly here on earth" (Psalm 58:10-11). Bonus Reading: Psalm 35:1-10

At an L.A. community college, I was leading a Bible study on Jesus' command to love your enemies. I offered that God helps us love those who hurt us. "But sometimes it's very hard," Ricardo observed.

I agreed, but again made such love sound simple. Ricardo kept stressing its difficulty. So I asked, "Do you have a hard time loving your enemies?"

"Very hard," he responded. As a teenager in Central America, he told us, he was part of a movement of Jesus followers that shared the gospel with its neighbors. They had no political agenda. But local government officials, fearing that they would become politically uncooperative, ordered them to cease their evangelistic efforts. Ricardo and his friends refused to comply out of faithfulness to Christ. Police stormed a prayer meeting they were holding, grabbed the leaders, took them outside, and shot them. Ricardo escaped and fled his homeland.

Since hearing Ricardo's story, when praying through the Psalms, I've put myself in the shoes of victims, and prayed in solidarity with them. The vindictive psalms help us pray both for and with suffering Christians. As we do, we also learn to pray against the enemies of God.

—Mark Roberts in No Holds Barred

My Response: The next time I pray, I'll stand in the shoes of ____.

Thought to Apply: Most scriptures speak to us; the Psalms speak for us. —Athanasius (bishop of Alexandria)

Adapted from Mastering Monday (InterVarsity, 2006) by permission.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Thank You, Lord, for psalms that show how a man after Your own heart approached You. Help me learn from them.

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