Managing Mistreatment
Anybody can accept a reward graciously, and many people can even take their punishment patiently when they have done something wrong. But how many people are equipped to handle mistreatment after they've done right?

Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Anybody can accept a reward graciously, and many people can even take their punishment patiently when they have done something wrong. But how many people are equipped to handle mistreatment after they've done right?
What's in the past? Only two things: great attainments and accomplishments that could either make us proud by reliving them or indifferent by resting on them...or failures and defeats that cannot help but arouse feelings of guilt and shame.
In the light of truth, you and I are able to see both truth and lie, both light and darkness—that which is simple, pure, and clear and that which is deceptive....
Our problem isn't that we've failed. Our problem is that we haven't failed enough. We haven't been brought low enough to learn what God wants us to learn....
The essential link between God's grace and our peace is His mercy...that is, God's infinite compassion actively demonstrated toward the miserable.
Humility is not how you dress, it is not the money you make, it is not where you live, it's not what you drive, it is not even how you look. We're never once commanded by God to "look" humble.
Worries are our mental and emotional companions. But Jesus says, in effect, that they're worthless!
Our forefathers knew, it seems, how to commune with the Almighty...but do we? We must learn anew to think deeply, to worship meaningfully, to meditate unhurriedly.
With the debris out of the way, we are able to see things more clearly and feel God's nudging more sensitively.
Stop and glance at the palms of your hands. Now, imagine they are God's hands and that you are right there.... Our ways remain continually before Him.