The Test of Faith
Luiba, arrested for her faith by the Russian Communists, was kept in a solitary cell, starved, and beaten. Still, she did not deny Jesus or reveal the names of other believers. She patiently suffered for the sake of the gospel.
Love That Transforms
One night, when the guard insulted her with foul words and was just about to start beating her, she somehow saw him differently.
She noticed for the first time that he was as tired of beating her as she was of being beaten. She was worn out from lack of sleep, and so was he. He was as desperate over not getting any information from her as she was about suffering for refusing to betray her friends.
A voice told her, “He is so much like you. You are both caught in the same drama of life. You and your torturers pass through the same vale of tears.”
Liuba looked up at the guard who had already lifted up his whip to beat her. She smiled. Stunned, he asked, “Why do you smile?”
She replied, “I don’t see you the way a mirror would show you right now. I see you as you surely once were, a beautiful, innocent child. I see you, too, as I hope you will be. There was once a persecutor worse than you named Saul of Tarsus. He became an apostle and a saint. What burden so weighs on you that it drives you to the madness of beating a person who has done you no harm?”
The torturer put down his whip. He left that day a changed man.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Matthew 5:43-45
Date: 16th July 2022
Title: Smiling at Her Torturer
Martyr: Liüba Ganevskaya
Location: USSR
Source: Jesus Freaks
Author: DC Talk and The Voice of Martyrs
Suffering Saturday 001
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