Devotion 1/18, Word of God speak
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17
What convicts me most about this passage are the three verbs for me to obey: encourage, defend, and plead. It’s hard to sit on the sideline and hope someone else takes care of the needs!
Part of being blessed and taking care of ourselves — at least as I think God sees it — is caring for others, sticking up for the disadvantaged, and intervening when someone else is being exploited.
Today’s prayer is from Phiip Ware:
Remove the heart of selfishness, O God, that sometimes keeps me from caring for the oppressed, abused, forgotten, and broken. Give me your eyes of concern and Jesus’ heart of compassion to see the oppressed, fatherless, and widowed. O, Holy Spirit, please stir me to action and help me minister to them. In his name, the Lord, Jesus, the compassionate Christ, I pray. Amen.
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