It's Up to Us

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

Today's Passage: Isaiah 61
Memory Verse: Isaiah 61:1

All around us, the world works very hard to make it appear as if they are extremely happy. Every commercial on television or magazine ad shows people with great big smiles while they party, doing everything they're big and bad enough to do. And yet, every weekly news report includes at least one suicide, drug overdose, or other disastrous ending to lives that are supposed to be so happy. These problems just do not match up with the picture they try to sell us.

What's more, this sad state is not just a Hollywood thing. There are people around us everywhere we go who are facing the same mountains of oppression created by the enemy. Some of them are even believers just like us, walking day by day in a dark place where they feel there's no way out. So what is the solution to all this pain? Is God so cruel that He would sentence the whole world to enduring everything being dished out by satan and his imps? Not the God that I know.

Today's passage lets us know that there IS an answer. Why? Because He placed something inside ALL of us that holds the answer. He gave us the anointing to encourage those who are poor in spirit, those who feel as if all hope is gone. We are to help the brokenhearted, those who've been let down so many times that they think life will always be this way. The Word even goes on to say that we are to DECREE the release of captives, the freeing of prisoners, and announce the year of the Lord's favor. These are legal words that are used in political situations. Why do they apply to us? Because when we live for Jesus Christ, He gives us the legal authority to speak things that are not as though they were, and they SHALL come to pass.

So what does God expect us to do? On any given day, we will come into contact with the very kinds of people we've already talked about. There will always be people who need to be encouraged, and others who must be convinced that Jesus went to the cross so they could be free in every area. And always, we can lift up prayers for specific as well as general situations, decreeing and declaring their freedom just as the Word says. Remember, when we do our part, these very people will turn around and be used of God to do theirs: rebuild the ruins and restore the formerly desolate places. That said, it's really up to us whether change will come to our city or not. God has already made provision to bring it to pass. WE just have to be willing to die to ourselves and be used of God in a mighty way. The alternative? Live with the pain and degradation we see all around us. And THAT is too high a price to pay.

Prayer: Father, when I look at how far away from Your original plan this world is, it's heartbreaking. Then I remember that You are still in the plan, and You've already made provision for the cries of the oppressed to be answered. You've anointed me to do all these things, so all I need to remember is that it's not by my might or power, but by Your Spirit. Use me and all Your people to accomplish Your will on this earth. In Jesus' Name, Amen.