“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8,9
The mandate of scripture is that we speak up for those who can not speak for themselves. That we bring attention and action to areas where there is little or no attention and action. We are called to advocacy on behalf of the needy and no one is offered the place of spectator in expressing the love of Heaven towards humankind.
But where do we possibly start with this enormous task? Once we begin to take note of issues of injustice and need, it is easy to quickly go from being aware to being overwhelmed. The needs are so great, the wounds are so deep, and the issues calling for our attention too numerous to count. Issues such as; abuse protection, poverty, gender equality, disease, addiction and shelter, only scratch the surface of a human condition beaten and broken by sin.
Before we throw up our hands, and in the towel, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task let me offer some advice. While we (the Body of Christ) are called to respond to every need and every issue, you and I (members of the Body of Christ) are not required to do so. We are certainly to live with a posture of compassion towards the needy, and a willingness to act on their behalf, but there is a limit to our finite supply of energy, resource and time that we must steward wisely. We each must allow Holy Spirit to guide us through a process of finding our voice, where a cause become a calling. Where one or two of a multitude of issues calling for our attention begin to burn within us and capture us. It is for this issue (whatever Holy Spirit burdens our heart with) that we must speak up. This is the place where God would have us use our voice, and lend our voice, to a cry of compassion and justice.
This process begins by us simply increasing our awareness of the issues facing humankind. As our awareness increases we must resist the temptation to hide from these issues or recoil in fear/disgust as our sensibilities are slammed by the depravity of man. For each of us, different issues will burn more brightly and these are the issues that we uniquely must speak for, this is where one cause becomes our calling. As we begin to speak up we will find others who God has also called to speak for those same issues and together our voices will carry even farther and Heaven’s love will be expressed into more and more areas
