Let’s get our hearts activated with some Holy Spirit prayer:
Father, give us the courage today to ask you to change our hearts to really desire to help hurting people. Help us see our prejudices as keeping us away from real friendship with You. Let us at least be willing to be changed by You, even if we don’t feel we can change on our own. In the name of Jesus, amen.
I can’t believe it, but we are almost half-way through The Love Revolution Devotional Workbook and Field Journal, by Joyce Meyer.
In the center of the workbook, there are photos of some of the millions of people the Joyce Meyer Ministry is trying to reach with practical help, like food, clothing, water, and bible resources. She lists some shocking statistics that I almost passed by, not wanting to feel anything about something I can’t do much about, but realized my ignoring it didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.
Praying for God to help me set aside my judgements, and have compassion for people regardless of how they got there, I read every caption. What I found was staggering.
I won’t list them all, but at least have the courage to read the few I share with you, and understand, no one, no matter into what life they were born, wants to stay hungry, be forced into sexual slavery, drink from bacteria and feces-contaminated water, or abandon their children to live off trash in a garbage dump.
If you are living in comfort above what I just listed, you are among the richest 1% in the world. You can afford a few minutes of discomfort to read this:
•Of the 2.2 billion children in the world today, 640 million do not have a sturdy roof over their heads, 400 million don’t have clean or safe drinking water, and 270 million do not have any access to medical services, whatsoever.
•Every two minutes a child, aged 5 and up, is being prepared for sexual exploitation and 1.2 million children are trafficked as new sex slaves every year, adding to the millions already held captive!
•One child across the planet dies from hunger every 5 seconds, about 10 million die before their 5th birthday each year.
•The “Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)” in Uganda has abducted more than 30,000 children to force them to serve as soldiers and sex slaves.
•In Thailand, girls as young as 6 years old are forced into prostitution, with children making up a third of the at least 200,000 prostitutes.
Where is our outrage?
God cares about each of us, from the wealthiest to the poorest, from the strong to the weak and infirm, from the believer to the most arrogant sinner, from the greatest, to the weak. He cares for you.
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him. Proverbs 14:31 English Standard Version
If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord — and he will repay you! Proverbs 19:17
New Living Translation
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.
New International Version
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ Isaiah 58:7 The Message
What are we supposed to do with all this information?
This is real love - not that we love God, but that He loves us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
1 John, 4:9-12 New Living Translation
God, make us love each other, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Love, Karen
Photo by Renata Osinski
Courtesy of Photoxpress.com
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