Released 20 October 2011
A Day and Night Cry for Justice
November 2011
Is not this the
kind of fasting that I [God] have chosen?
Isaiah
58:6
This month our reflection and prayer will focus on the justice that God
requires of his children, of individual Christians, and of his Church.
The spiritual quest and desire to please God have always been in the thinking
of Christians: “How can we touch the heart of God?”
This question is in mind whether we’re involved in a personal or
communal search, whether we reflect individually or in groups, whether we form
community development committees or engage in thinking about how to organize
our worship meetings or ask how to reach new people. We always want to have
more spiritual power. As the General said in her invitation to prayer, we have
"a desperate desire for a powerful relationship with the Lord."
It may be that fasting is not very common among us; our agenda may be more
concerned with trying to discover what kind of praise pleases God, but in any
case we search. As Isaiah 58: 2 puts it, “[God said] ‘They seek me
out; they seem eager to know my ways.’” We certainly are
seekers.
Dare we say that even though we multiply the moments for prayer, that we
meet to pray fervently on Thursday morning all around the world, the we cry to
the Lord day and night, that we could come to say (as the seekers in
Isaiah’s day said) "Why? "
‘Why have
we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why
have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
Isaiah 58:.3
Now, the intention is not to raise doubts about the value of prayer. On the
contrary, this note is meant to encourage you to mobilize and to get up for
“crying to him night and day.” (Luke 18: 7) But we must pay
attention to what it is we pray for. Persistent and fervent prayer is not
itself enough. Do we pray for the things that God really wants us to pray
for?
And will not
God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?
Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice
and quickly.
Luke 18:7
Pray that our prayers will be heard (v. 4) :
- that our business and personal interests do not take first place;
- that God will help us to treat all those around us—family, children,
friends and colleagues—with his gentleness;
- that quarrels and strife stop in our communities.
Pray that we have eyes, ears and hearts open to do everything
according to what the Lord asks in Isaiah 58: 6 and 7 :
- to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke
November 13th, 2011, participate in the
International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church;
"Christians are
now the most persecuted religious group in the world. Because of their faith in
Jesus Christ, more than 100 million believers face discrimination, persecution
or acts of violence, whether from people of other religions or totalitarian
regimes. Christians are often treated as second class citizens who are being
denied even the most basic human rights. "
http://www.idop.org/
- to set the oppressed free and break every yoke
- to share food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with
shelter;
“The famine declared in south-central
Somalia is feared to be worse than the historic famine of the 1980s that
afflicted a wide region of the Horn of Africa, which includes Ethiopia, Kenya,
and Somalia.
Across the country, nearly half the Somali population -- 3.7
million people -- is living in crisis. An estimated 2.8 million of those are in
the south-central regions of Southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle.” World
Vision
http://home.worldvision.org/?page=nonflash#pseudo_story1426
- when we see the naked, to clothe them
- not to turn away from our own flesh and blood.
Minorities, foreigners, disabled, the elderly,
children, refugees struggle to find their place, to be recognized, accepted and
loved. Pray for all those who are abandoned and neglected.
Blessing
When we pray for justice as God would have us pray for justice, let us also
pray that the wonderful promises God made to his people will be visible and
received in our Army, in our families, in our communities.
Then your light will break forth like the
dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go
before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will
call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:
“Here am I.”
Then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he
will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Then you will find your joy in the LORD.
Then you will find your joy in the LORD, and [he]
will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on
the inheritance of your father Jacob.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah
58:8-14)