Psalm 119:49-56

Psalm 119:49-56
English Standard Version (ESV)

  Being the center of attention can be hard, especially when it's not good attention.  When we're surrounded by our enemies, beset on all sides by opposition, we want to strike out, because it seems so unfair.  We want to make others feel the way we do when we suffer, and the world can often seem like an unfeeling place, where suffering is meted out upon those who do not deserve any more, while some who seem to care little about their fellow humans can get by with little trouble.
  In these times, the promise of God is what keeps us going.  Bitterness and anger can eat away at us -- holding a grudge has been likened to eating rat poison and waiting for the rat to die.  Entrusting ourselves and our fates and our futures to God and relying on his promises, however, allows us to forgive one another, because we aren't called to set things right -- that's in God's hands.  We trust in God, the God who forgives us when we don't deserve it, the same God who forgives others when they seem not to deserve it.  The Romans didn't deserve Jesus' forgiveness when he was hanging on the cross, but he gave it anyway, because Jesus loves without condition or restraint.
  Jesus loves you, and when you are surrounded and beset by affliction, know that God chooses to be for you, and by focusing on the unconditional love of God, you can entrust your enemies to God and know that you are safe in God's hands.  May you find the words to sing to God in the midst of affliction, and may you keep the long view, knowing that eternity with God awaits all who are in Christ Jesus, no matter what.