Friday Fight 157: Outrage to Outreach?
Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF157.
What comes to mind when we hear the word outraged? It is defined as having an extreme reaction of anger, shock, or resentment. Most of us begin thinking about a situation or a person as we attempt to process whatever caused our reaction. Afterwards, we may focus on the mindset that followed these emotions. How can we move from being outraged to transforming our minds to better our spiritual lives?
Outrage to Outreach?
When we think about being outraged, we could all begin with a broad compilation of emotions towards our country’s leadership, public education, or any other area of society. Discontent in one of these areas has become the norm but what about the shock or anger caused by something in our homes, jobs, or the behavior of those around us? What is our process of dealing with it, and how can we use what we learn from the life of Christ to help us with our reactions? 1 Peter 5:7 says to “Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” We should bring our worries, questions, fears, and thoughts to the Lord not only because He can make changes, but because He cares.
As we move through the seasons of our lives, our reactions to things change. Striving to have a closer relationship with God changes our perspective as God’s grace transforms us and we mature spiritually. We should all welcome the Holy Spirit’s correction as we are all a work in progress. In every correction, we are offered another way to handle our outrage, with an outreach that glorifies Him. Although we might not hear His correction the first time, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will wait patiently until we learn.
I want to share an example of what prompted this post. Last month, my daughter and I traveled to Alaska to visit family, and what a beautiful state it is! Because of the temperature, I was shocked to see the amount of homeless people living in Anchorage. Throughout the course of my day, I would pray for them. In my continued enjoyment of family and God’s creation, I could feel the Holy Spirit correcting me for remaining relatively silent in my shock. I was so surprised by the amount of homeless people I was seeing, but I was not praying for them like I should have. Even though I was spending time with God, I needed a reminder to talk to God about a precious child of His before talking to others. I thought about the perspective of the homeless who probably did not see this incredible scenery as a canvas painted by God but as a chamber of cold ground and constant fighting for survival. We often put God aside when we are not in our everyday routine. I might have been vacationing, but God always works in our minds!
Perhaps alone, we cannot make a significant difference in our country’s leadership, but we can pray for them. We can dislike what is happening in our schools, but are we taking the time to reach out with appreciation or praying for our educators? Before we speak to others about what causes us discontentment, let’s share our thoughts with God, allowing Him to use our prayers to make a difference. If we want God to answer our prayers, we should reveal our hearts and ask. Prayer is an outpouring of our souls. Pray about any outrage and allow God to reveal an outreach that brings glory to Him before complaining to others. Outreach comes in various forms, and prayer is not the least we can do; it is the most we can do.
Pastor Shannon
New Life Calvert