prayers for justice

Recently, I was thinking about the kinds of things I typically ask God for, or that I hear people ask God for. A lot of them boil down to something to the effect of reducing suffering now. For example, heal the ill friend, comfort the mourning family, or strengthen the weak will. Recently, I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about mercy, or meeting immediate needs, versus justice, or final and permanent victory over sin, death, and suffering. I realized that I don’t often pray for justice, and I rarely use that term in my prayer life.

Many church ministries are based around mercy, but few, if any, around justice. For example, we may address hunger by preparing meals and donating to food banks, but we often don't work to end hunger once and for all (treat yourself to a thought experiment: how can we achieve a permanent end to hunger?).

So, from my humble perspective, it looks like the way we do ministry effects even our prayer life, or at least mine. I do work, and then that's how I pray. That's actually backwards. Talking with God should change who I am, and send me out to do things God's way. I'll never get to justice if I'm only praying for mercy.

I have to pause here: mercy is necessary and even required, and is no less important than justice. As a mentor of mine, Susan, says, conjunctions are important. Looking at Micah 6:8 and Matthew 23:23, does it say mercy or justice or faith? No, the conjunction is and! Balance is crucial.

From a recent sermon, I gleaned an interesting and unique point about prayers for justice. Jesus tells us that prayers for justice by God’s chosen ones will be answered, and quickly! When I learn something like that, I feel challenged to try it. It's like God is saying to me, "Go ahead, take me up on my promises. Try me."

Well, I sat back, and in a sense wondered how I should pray for justice! Wow, that sounds silly as I type it, but I landed there after thinking about this for a bit. I've certainly prayed for peace in war torn areas of the world and similar things, but, to me, that's so impersonal. I asked God to help me think about ways to pray for justice, and he answered that prayer right away. Well, that's too personal to share here, but just know and remember that God is faithful.

Will you take God up on this promise today? Pick a small thing, some small injustice that you've experienced, and place it in God's hands. Further, share the result with a brother or sister to the glory of God.

Prayer requests:

• God's truth about justice would be ever clearer to me
• I grow as a balanced agent for justice, mercy, and faith in Jesus' name