PRE- OCCUPIED!!!!

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

Today's Passage> Nehemiah chapter 5
Memory Verse> Isaiah 58: 6-7

OCCUPY. It's the latest form mainstream America is using to express how they feel about an issue. This time, it's the senseless distribution of wealth among those who are already wealthy. A decade ago, it was an outcry about saving the planet through recycling, reducing and reusing materials. The awareness of the suffering in the lives of others besides ourselves has also been growing, but not as fast among believers as it has among those not professing to be Christians.

With all the things we have to focus on, having a burden for what happens to others can get pushed to the bottom of the list in a heartbeat. But to God it is not a laughing matter, nor is it something to consider light. In Isaiah 58, He reminds us that we only walk in blessing if we don't ignore the oppression around us. When we fast and pray, our prayers become top priority to Him, but only when we make lifting the oppression off others a priority. In Matthew 25, God clearly outlines what He expects from us where oppression is concerned. Only those who are preoccupied with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the lonely and seeing about the needs of the sick will be entering into heaven.

It's quite interesting that we as believers, who are given a spirit of discernment to know what direction to pray, begin to use that discernment for other reasons. We're hypersensitive to the comments of people whose opinions shouldn't matter in the first place. While hurting people continue to hurt around us, we're pre-occupied with everything but what God has called us to be concerned about. Oppression in ANY form should be something that we speak out against-- not out of fear that if we don't, we'll be punished, but out of obedience to the heart of God. Look around: is there a need we can do something about? I've found that the more pre-occupied I am with the needs of others, the less anxious I am about my own needs and issues. Let's be pre- occupied with God's broken.

Prayer: Father, there are so many broken people around us. We pray that You will give us a heart that is sensitive to Your heart. Only You can prepare us for the task of looking out for the needs of others. It takes Your heart, and without Your will to push past our own desires, there will be no- one to go the extra mIle . Please fill us with the desire to please only You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.