My daily reading plan has me reading the book of Jeremiah. This is probably not a good idea during a pandemic and racial unrest and while so many Christians and prophets are “Prophesying, America is about to be judged.”
(Side note: The same Christians who say God is about to judge America, are also the same Christians that say America is the best country. Do you see why Pre-Christians may have some trust issues?)
I personally do not believe God is about to judge America. And please don’t allow anyone to sway your vote by prophesying judgment if you vote contrary to them. That is witchcraft and manipulation.
But in reading Jeremiah, we can see God’s heart. What concerns God? You may be surprised. According to today’s Christians God has only one concern: Abortion.
But in Jeremiah’s day (and God does not change) what grieved the Father’s heart was:
Injustice.
Exploiting foreigners, orphans, widows.
Shedding innocent blood.
Idols.
We have prayed, “Lord give us your heart.” God’s heart is justice for ALL people.
Should not the church that meets in America be as adamant about racial injustice as they are for abortion. Justice is God’s heart.
Should we not be as concern for the child who has no health care, who statistically will grow up impoverished without intervention as we are about the unborn? God’s heart is for the impoverished.
Should we not be as welcoming to the immigrants as we are to the fetus? God’s heart is for the foreigner.
And yes, abortion falls the under shedding of innocent blood but so does the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and many other people of color throughout the years. Should we not be as outraged about those lives as we are about the lives of the unborn? God’s heart is for the innocent whose lives are taken.
If kneeling before the American flag is more offensive than seeing children separated from their parents then maybe the flag has become an American idol.
My Christian friends, I know this may offend you. That was not my heart in writing this. But I think American Christians have put an “or” where God wants us to put an “and”.
God wants us to stop the shedding of blood of the unborn AND people of Color.
He wants us to rally against abortion AND injustice.
He wants us to love the unborn AND immigrants, the fatherless, the poor, and widows.
It’s okay to love America but not at the expense of not loving the people who call America home.
Father give us Your heart.
“For if you thoroughly change your ways and your behavior, if you thoroughly and honestly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the transient and the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood [by oppression and by unjust judicial murders] in Jerusalem, nor follow after other gods to your own ruin,”
Jeremiah 7:5-6 AMP