Choosing Forgiveness
Pastor John learned that around ten other villages had been similarly attacked the previous day, leaving nearly two hundred people dead. The common thread in the attacks? The targets were Christians. At home, Pastor John tried unsuccessfully to make sense of the senselessness. It was impossible. Bitterness beckoned him, and his instinct was to hurt back. Instead, he made a choice. “I just threw everything back to God,” he said. “I prayed God would help the attackers understand that this is evil so that they can stop. I also asked God to help me to be able to use my life to propagate the gospel, because I knew that I could have died.”
Instead of wishing evil on the attackers, he forgave the men who had killed his family and friends. He hopes they will receive salvation through Jesus. And although forgiveness brings healing, it does not erase sorrow and grief. “It’s painful,” Pastor John said. “When they did all that and I lost my family, it was very painful. But there’s nothing you can do to change the situation apart from lifting it to God.”
Strength From Job
For encouragement to endure, he turned to the book of the Job, the Bible’s account of a man who had wave after tragic wave wash over him. “Job lost everything-wealth, children, everything but his wife,” he said. “Yet he did not turn his back on God. That story has helped me, not only to deal with the situation, but even to remain who l am.”
Pastor John related so closely to Job’s story that he preached several sermons on it following the attack. “Job’s wife told him to curse God and die,” he said, “but his reply was that in the days where there is good from the Lord, we accept it. When there is difficulty, how can we refuse to accept that? Those thoughts encourage me and give me strength.”
The End
Date: 21st February 2026
Martyr: John
Location: Nigeria
Source: The voice of martyrs “I am n”
Author: Not specified
Suffering Saturday 183
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