A Boy who Stands Strong

“Michael” is 11 years old. He might be in sixth grade if he lived in another country, but in Pakistan Michael doesn’t go to school. He was abducted by a wealthy Muslim landowner, and for the last one-and-a-half years, he has worked from 4:00 AM to 11:00 PM without a break or lunch.

Although his name has been changed, Michael is a real boy. Often he wears iron chains while he works. Neither sickness nor intense heat exempts him from his labor. Now he is growing weak and ill. His master often tells him that the chains will go away, the work will lessen, and the food will be better if the young boy does one thing—convert to Islam.

But Michael is a Christian. His body may be weak, but any child who can resist such intense pressure has another kind of strength—a remarkable strength of character that can only come from Jesus.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For Your sake we are being killed all day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 8:35-39

Source: Compass Direct News