Daily Devotional

Proverbs 31:8-9 BSB

Open your mouth for those with no voice, for the cause of all the dispossessed. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the poor and needy.

     Being a Christian, believing in God, and behaving ourselves isn’t enough. We have to act, to stand up for the poor and oppressed and the badly treated. Not hurting them ourselves means nothing if we see them being hurt and fail to act. If we can stop a bad action and refuse to act to do so, aren’t we allowing the pain to happen? Isn’t there some guilt in that? There are 2 kinds of sin, those of commission (we did something bad) and those of omission (we should have acted and didn’t.) They are equal in God’s eyes. The older I get the more I am bothered by the things I should have done; often wonder what would have happened if I had acted instead of standing by. I know that God has forgiven me for those times but I am not sure that I have forgiven myself. We all need to keep a watch on ourselves to make sure we are speaking out, standing up and helping those who need us. Just as Jesus stood up for the woman about to be stoned, we must act on behalf of all of God’s children; all mankind. 

Prayer:

Christ my Savior, be with me and lead me to act when others need my help. Give me the courage to stand up and speak up for the poor, the persecuted and the dispossessed. Amen.