22 Feb Free to Serve
Owning another’s cause. This is the essence of partnering. The giving of oneself, sacrificially and through relationship, to promote and support the dreams, goals, and causes of someone else.
Repeatedly throughout the Bible we are commanded to care for the orphans, widows, and the poor. (Exodus 22:22, Isaiah 1:17, Jeremiah 5:28-29, Zechariah 7:10)
For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords…He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. So you, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17-19)
As believers, the central cry of our lives is that we are broken, needy sinners desperate for a Savior, Jesus Christ. Daily we feel the effects of our own sin, shame, and rebellion. Jesus quite literally took on our cause, fully-fleshed, to die in our place so that we could be made right. Jesus is the ultimate Ezer. We are the fatherless who were adopted. We are the widows who were made a bride. We are the poor who were given riches and clothed in righteousness.
As ezers, we are called to come alongside and partner with others. One way we do this is by reaching out to the most needy, the fatherless, the poor, and the widow, those whom society often overlooks. This will look different for every individual in her season, but we cannot neglect our responsibility:
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
So what does this look like at Grace?
- It may be arranging a garage sale for a family raising support to work as missionaries in another country.
- It may be mentoring an under-resourced child at a local school.
- It may be committing to regular prayer for the homeless in the Upstate.
- It may be collecting box tops for a Title 1 school.
- It may be supporting an under-resourced entrepreneur.
Our desire and strength to love and serve others is not a result of our attempts to earn God’s favor or gain merit. Instead, we are free to love and serve because we are loved and we have been served. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He has taken our cause as His own so now we can do the same for others.
Visit the Culturally Engaged page and read the Culturally Engaged blog for more information on ways you can serve and reach our community.
~Taylor Beard Photo ©iStockphoto.com/Alex Motrenko