Oaks of Righteousness
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Isaiah 61:1-31. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2. to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3. to grant to those who mourn in Zion -- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
I try not to get too political in my posts. For some reason, though, these verses lead me to think about the local elections that took place on Tuesday and the upcoming Presidential election. You’ve about it haven’t you? How could you not? The campaigning began in earnest months ago! This time around, I’ve thoroughly researched the candidates and have tried to get to know who they are as people in addition to how they’ve voted on particular issues.
Even for President of the United States, a small minority of eligible voters actually exercise that right. I have never understood that. Voting responsibly is crucial to our communities, states and country! Of course, often there are no viable choices, which is another issue altogether!
On a personal level these words impart to us a tremendous responsibility. Each of these tasks taken alone seems impossible to accomplish. Taken together they are seemingly insurmountable and doom us for failure. But read the first 8 words of verse 1, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. In Isaiah’s time the Holy Spirit had not been given to all believers; only a select few were indwelt by the Spirit until Pentecost. The Spirit of the Lord not only allowed Isaiah to know what God wanted him to do, but allowed him to figure out how to get it done and afforded him super-human ability to do it—the ability of the Spirit.
We have the benefit of the Holy Spirit in our lives, too. The Lord has anointed each of us to minister to his world in the same ways revealed to Isaiah. We don’t need to jump on every bandwagon [inserting note to self] to act as a change agent. By living our lives so as to fully demonstrate and express the Spirit within us is all we need to do. All? Well . . . it’s not as easy as that sentence seems to indicate, nor do I ignore that fact.
If we begin each day determined to be the hands and feet, heart and mind of Christ to everyone in our lives, we will have gone a long way toward these goals. We don’t all have to be politicians or ministers, CEO’s or PTA presidents. Me being myself and you being yourself will be sufficient since we have the Spirit within us. When we get out of our own way and allow the Spirit to work within us, we are powerful, strong, kind, righteous and a change agent for the world.
Each of us making the world better in even the smallest ways contributes to a better world—cleaner, more abundant, safer, more secure, habitable and accommodating. Voting responsibly helps to ensure the vision of the world revealed to us by the Spirit come to fruition.
My prayer today is that you spend some time in the Spirit breathing in God’s mission for your life. And that you begin today to bring good tidings to the afflicted, bind up the broken hearted, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Mary
