I would like to share with you a glimpse into what I believe to be God’s heart for the orphan. Let’s start with a reading from Matthew.
Matthew 25: 31-40
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy[a] angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’
40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
“Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to ME…”
Wow, Scripture is certainly a truth that is undeniable isn’t it?
In example, let me give you a statistic on the orphan and then apply it to the number of children just in my church family.
Every 2.2 seconds a child becomes an orphan.
In my church there are around 130 children from the ages of 0-18. So if every 2.2 seconds a child becomes an orphan that means in 4.77 minutes every single one of these children is now orphaned. In just four short minutes, they have lost their families, their home, most are starving, and they are on there own. These children, mine included, are now trying to survive by living in the streets. They are fighting just to live. It is so dangerous for them to sleep at night that they try to find safe places during the day so they can sleep for maybe 20 minutes. But let’s say maybe they are some fortunate enough to be placed in an orphanage that is extremely understaffed. So maybe now they have shelter and some food, but they spend there days confined to a crib, only to be touched when they need fed or changed. Picture a baby crying for someone to hold them and no one does so they begin to bang their heads against the crib just so they can feel something. Are you picturing your child there? It’s not hard for me to picture because my children have been there.
Every orphan represents misfortune, heartbreak, and tragedy. Can you imagine such brokeness at such young ages?? Can you imagine having death in your face every second of everyday, and then to face that without knowing about the love of our Jesus, without knowing what hope in him means for you and your life?
I know when many see our family they think adoption, and a lot of you know we are extremely passionate about adoption. I want to stress to you that we do not feel every Christian is called to adopt, but we know that every Christian is called to do something for the orphan to advocate for them and their families.
Russell Moore wrote an article called “Don’t Adopt!” Now don’t be fooled this article is not saying no one should adopt, but he his pointing out the difficulties in adopting. He quotes one of my favorite verses from James 1 verse 27 which states:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Mr. Moore also says this: Adoption is about taking on risk as cross-bearing love.
Every orphan, every adoption comes wrapped up with some kind of hurt and it takes a sacrificial love like none other to adopt them into your family and give them love. Adoption changes your life plan and it is so worth it. Loving the orphan and helping provide for their needs will do the same thing for you, if adoption is not on your heart.
The adoption of my children is only a small glimpse into how it is for us Christians who are adopted by God into his family. We fail all the time and he takes us back every time.
My family has listened to what God purposed our family to do and we know he is asking for more from us. We have battled and continue to battle the spiritual warfare that comes along with adopting and caring for the orphan and we refuse to let Satan win. We have seen the faces of children suffering, and we have cared for the two the Lord planned for our family and we are working fervently for the others he has put on our hearts.
So I ask you today to open your heart to the orphans that are living without love and in fear every single day until they die.
You can’t be the hands and feet of Jesus unless you are right in there doing something and there are so many ways to do something.
If you are doing nothing I ask that you evaluate your silence.
Get on your knees and seek the Lord and his plans for you and the orphan.
Get involved in missions that you are able to and more importantly get your family involved. If the Lord has put it on your heart to adopt, then do it! You will be immeasurably blessed beyond anything you could ever imagine.
Lastly, if you don’t remember any of what I have written today I ask that you at least ask yourself this. Have I said YES to God and his plans for me and the orphan? Then get on your knees and ask God to reveal his plans for you, and His answer will change your life and more importantly bring Glory to
(and because they are cute and were once orphaned a pic of my babes.)
No comments:
Post a Comment