The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
Psalm 103:6
Righteousness is all about being right...and good...and honorable.
When the LORD looks down on each of us, He sees our lives as they truly are. Most of us are oppressed in some way or fashion.
In some parts of the world the oppression seems obvious:
- Women are oppressed in certain nations simply because of their gender.
- Christians are oppressed because the nation in which they live does not have freedom of religion.
- Children are oppressed because their entire lives have been bookended by war and poverty leaving their nations deprived of adult leadership or healthy parents.
- And the oppression and painful pits of reality turn onward...
Here in the United States, or even in Western Europe, the oppression is more insidious;
- We are oppressed by our ways of thinking or the ways that society tells us to think.
- We are oppressed by how our bodies should look or what we should wear.
- We are oppressed by where we live and the opportunities available to us.
- We are oppressed by a government of entitlement that wants to monitor our every movement or expression.
- We are oppressed because we are forced to be political correct to the point of no longer being able to express what we believe or why we believe.
- We are oppressed because the fringes of society have become more important than the mass of society.
- We are oppressed because we have told God that He is not as important as we are...
God is working to make this world right again; to seek out the righteousness in a world of corruption and corrupt able people. He wants justice for each of us and He has given us the means to find this justice through the salvation He offered us on the cross.
The oppression we face as Westerners is unique because we do not really feel oppressed. We can have nearly anything we want...but the cost is the loss of our freedom to love God above all else. By choosing "the American Way", we often choose to turn our backs, consciously and subconsciously, away from our true Redeemer. We have become satisfied with stuff rather than seeking out the salvation offered.
Today, as we countdown the five days remaining in 2011, we have the opportunity to reflect on where God sits in our lives. Is He first - granting us the freedom to live and to love as His disciples? Is He second - behind our comforts? Or is He far down on the list as an after thought proving that our desires for stuff is greater than our desire for salvation?
You are either free or you are oppressed...recognizing where you are will determine whether or not your will find release from your captor and salvation in your redeemer.
Scripture
Quote of the Day
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Question of the Day
What stuff is holding you back?
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