justice

A Child’s Prayer For Justice

“Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12)

Today’s blog post won’t be my words, but my 12 year old daughter’s.

Before I tuck my kids into bed, we always take time praying together. Last night before she went to sleep I asked her, “Can you pray for the situation our country is in right now, and I’ll pray after you?”

I was so moved by her prayer that I jotted it down practically verbatim afterwards so I wouldn’t forget. Just as it gave me hope and encouragement in today’s climate of inequality, I pray it will do the same for you.

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Do Good. Please.

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)

This past Monday on May 25, 2020, a man named George Floyd was killed at the hands of police. The story has rocked the nation, as it was another instance of a black man [person] being treated inhumanely by a police officer. Whether or not it was racially motivated or just plain stupidity and lack of judgment, it’s these type of events that give the black community in our nation the sense that their lives don’t matter, when in fact, they do. This situation is all around heart-breaking and disgusting. The scene and storyline has become all too familiar over the past several years, as cellphones have given us the ability to record horrific demonstrations of sin occurring in real time. I have no doubt that this, as with all sin, grieves God’s heart, as it should likewise grieve the hearts of all those who claim to love and follow Jesus.

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Save Me from Myself (John 3:16-18)

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18)

Because we are all sinners and fall short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23), we are condemned to eternal punishment and separation from God from the start. While this sounds like a really unfair and cruel way for God to position us within this world, the fact of the matter is that our own sin and the sin of humankind got us here… but He has given us a way out. (more…)