"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart I have overcome the world." John 16:33
How many times have you read that verse and thought "boy that's the truth! So and so did this to me; my kids won't mind; I can't catch up on my bills.... And the list goes on and on. If we are really honest with ourselves we will find that we tend to focus a little too much on "me". If you think about that verse it's hard not to think that it's an understatement.
There are 1.2 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty on less than one dollar a day.
There are nearly 30,000 children under the age of 5 dying each day of hunger and preventable diseases.
This is a harsh and messed up world in which we live and yet we sit on our couches and think it's a great injustice when the cable goes out or the Internet isn't working. We have MORE material wealth than any other generation in history. We are prospering. But I wonder if God is pleased with what I am doing? I'm afraid I know the answer!
"Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Isaiah 58
Feeding the poor, caring for the oppressed can be messy, hard stuff. But what if what God wants is messy not our neat, got it all together religion. God is calling His people to do something.
He is a God of hope to bring restoration to me and you and a world full of hurt.
"You can't comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable" Princess Diana
If God is stirring in you a desire to do more, to do something my prayer is that you will seek Him for what he has for your life.
"He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8
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