Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in
prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:3
The letter to the Hebrews was written to first century Jewish believers in
Jesus who were being persecuted. Some were so discouraged they were considering
returning to Judaism. The writer encourages them to persevere because of the
superiority of Jesus over everything and everyone else. And He will return to
establish the ultimate kingdom.
Chapter 13 begins the author’s final instructions. First we are to continue
(repeated action) loving one another as brothers and sisters. This love is to be
practical and reach out even to strangers who we are to entertain as we may not
realize when one might be an angel. Then in our verse for today, our love is to
extend to those who are in prison for their faith, even to the point of assuming
we are in there with them. That makes a huge difference as to how we show
practical love.
Russian Christian prisoner, Aleksandr Ogorodnikov, shares, “One night I was
thrown into a cell with a broken window. The KGB was determined to do an
experiment and freeze me. Later they would say, ‘He broke the window in his cell
and died of cold.’ I felt despair. I thought to myself, ‘Has God really left me?
Am I really forgotten and neglected? Have my years of suffering been in
vain?’
“And in my despair I began to pray. I usually pray silently, but this time I
started to appeal to God out loud. ‘God, have You left me?’ My cries were
bursting from a heart literally in utter despair.
“And right then, I suddenly felt palpable, physical warmth. Not the kind that
comes from a heater, but like when a mother draws her freezing child to her
breast, and warms him with her tearful breath of compassion. It was a very
living, human warmth. It penetrates you, as if piercing you to the heart. And
inside your heart a spring opens up, out of which flows peace—a wonderful,
magnificent, soothing peace.
“I felt a very loving, brotherly touch—someone’s caring hand touching my
shoulder. I actually felt it. In the morning, it was a shock to my
executioners. They couldn’t understand. I wasn’t simply alive, but my
temperature was the same as that of a normal person. I heard a doctor explaining
to my executioners in the corridor, ‘This is impossible! We can’t explain
it.’
“It so happened that many people began praying for me. And that was exactly
when they released me.”
RESPONSE: I will continue to remember my brothers and sisters around the
world who are in prison for their faith.
PRAYER: Lord, give the sense and touch of Your presence to those suffering
for You in prison today.
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