Devotional - June 25, 2004

David had a way with words, didn't he? If we prayed these twenty words everyday starting today and through the last day of our life, we'd find there's little else for which we need to pray. I've prayed this so many times in my life and yet never realized I was echoing David's prayer.

"Make my will align with Your own, God. If I must struggle uphill against those who resist Your word or find myself stampeded downhill by the crowd that is headed their own way, please stop the elevator and let me off on level ground."

No doubt, the way can be rough when you determine to listen to God and go in the direction he's going. What we often discover is that the masses are going in the opposite direction God is headed.

Justice is something that is perverted in our day. In our society, if you have fame and fortune, you have influence and make your own justice; you have opportunity to call your own shots. But if you're not rich or famous, your lack of influence can get you shot. No doubt, the Sunammite widow knew the up and down of life, but she also knew the level ground afforded those who place their abiding faith in God's word.

Elisha interceded and the widow had provision through lean times. He prayed again and the widow became pregnant and had a child in her late years. He prayed again and her child was miraculously resuscitated to life after dying of head trauma. He sent her and her family away to avoid a famine in the land. Upon returning she found her land in the hands of someone else.

Were is not for the fact someone was testifying of how God had worked through Elisha to bless her, the Shunammite widow would have found herself on that downward slope. But justice was afforded her by the testimony of Elisha's servant and the grace of the king. But wasn't it really God's grace working through others that took care of her?

It might seem like justice is missing today. If you don't think so, just look around and you'll see it. It's seemingly absent in the world and rarely applied among God's people, a.k.a. the "church."

In the world without money to hire a good lawyer, you're likely to be charged and found guilty of someone else's crime. In the church with plenty of problems but little money, you're also without influence. In most cases, you're a dirty liability that is seldom recognized. Your problems are ugly and public discussion of your situation makes "normal" Christians uncomfortable. That makes you expendable in the eyes of the morally upright and "clean" element. And who says there's no such thing as leprosy anymore?

God make the ground beneath our feet level. Forget the world, I ask you to restore justice in the house that bears your name.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( 2 Ki. 8:1-9:15a Ac. 16:16-40 Ps. 143:1-12 Pr. 17:26 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society