“Torture Used to Enforce China’s ‘One Child’ Policy”

“One Innocent Bystander a Day Killed in Rio de Janeiro’s Drug Wars”

The headlines caught Libby’s eye as she flipped through the newspaper to find her usual read—the Living section. She tried to avoid the depressing stories, but as she pulled out the section on recipes and gardening, she couldn’t help but read the opening lines of a particularly sad story in the next section. When she read those stories, she felt angry and helpless. She didn’t want to know about all of the evil in the world. She preferred to stay blissfully unaware.

After trying unsuccessfully to focus on an article about azaleas, Libby turned back to the story in the next section. If she got depressed when she read those stories, she couldn’t imagine how the people who were part of them must be feeling. And what about how God felt? His heart must continuously break over the suffering He witnesses. If His heart was to bind up the brokenhearted, feed the hungry, and set the oppressed free, shouldn’t she be like-minded? Libby pulled the paper closer and began to read with new purpose, praying for peace, healing, and justice for each person as she went.

Though we may become hardened or try to hide from the suffering we see, Christ does not. He allows injustice for now, but He doesn’t accept it or become desensitized to it, and neither should we. In fact, God wants us to fight against injustice, to keep our hearts in tune with His on the issues and events around us. Intervene in prayer as you read the paper or watch the news. God works mightily through the prayers of His people!