"Give Me Your Eyes For Just One Second, Give Me Your Eyes So I Can See..."

 

I remember the first time I prayed that line, “Lord, give me Your eyes for just one second, let me see what You see, let me love what You love, let me be passionate about what You are passionate about but Lord, let me see.” He showed me. My word He showed me.

He opened my eyes to the atrocities that run rabid in this world. He showed me how His children, His Beloveds’ were being crushed. How innocence was being stolen, childhoods demolished and lives lost. He showed me the pain that these precious souls are facing. He opened my heart to their cries. I felt His heart, I felt how deep His grief and pain were. I felt His love for each and every one of His Beloveds’. I felt His heart break. I saw the pain I saw the horrors that these souls were facing and my heart couldn’t take it. I cried to Him “Jesus let me look away! Let me not feel this, oh let me look away!” I am ashamed of that, I wanted to walk away, turn a blind eye... But He very quietly whispered to my heart, “But I can’t look away.” My eyes were opened.

There are more than twenty-seven million people who have been enslaved in this world through sexual and labor exploitation. Half of that number are children. These souls are forced to do unspeakable things at the hands of their captors. These are boys and girls, women and men who are just like you and I. They are sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, moms and dads, they are someone’s whole world, and they are Jesus’s Beloved ones. You may be wondering “what can I do about it though? Twenty-seven is so large of a number what could I possibly do that could make a difference?”  We on our own may not be able to reach every single one, but we can affect the one. We can be the difference in someone’s life. But how do you do that?

 The most important thing you can do is pray. Prayer is our greatest advantage over the evil in this world. Samuel Chadwick once said, "There is no power like that of prevailing prayer--of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood. Such prayer prevails. It turns ordinary mortals into men of power. It brings power. It brings fire. It brings rain. It brings life. It brings God." Prayer is powerful.

Pray for the girls and boys who are trapped, pray that they will be set free. Pray also for their captors, pray that somehow the Lord will grip their hearts and make them turn from their actions. Pray that these souls will find Elohim, that they will be given new life. “Pray without ceasing”-1 Thessalonians 5:17

Consider partnering with an organization that combats human trafficking. Here are two excellent organizations:

http://www.rescueher.org/about

http://www.freedom424.org/

Get involved and bring awareness. There are many things that you can do. My girls group at my church hosted a Prayer Walk to make our community aware. Freedom 4/24 has 5k events for bringing awareness and raising money (which me & a group from my church are running this weekend!). Make sure that the products you buy are fair trade, that the companies that you support, do not support the slave trade.

God has made it apparent that he hates it when His children suffer, He wants them to be free. He has called us to set the captives free.

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” Isaiah 42:6-7

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Isaiah 61:1

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To seek justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

-Lauren

"Speak The Truth, Even If Your Voice Shakes."

This is one of my favorite quotes. Of all time. Period. You see I’ve always been a very introverted person, growing up I pretty much kept to myself, immersing my thoughts in books and writing and such. Because I was so shy I missed so many opportunities to speak, to speak truth and justice, mercy and kindness, hope and thanksgiving, praise and love. I missed that chance because I let the fear of what could happen dictate what should happen. I ignored the chance to change lives because I was afraid, because I was focused so much on self, on my own me-ness. I ignored Jesus nudging my heart, I ignored His prompts because I believed that He didn’t really want someone like me to talk for Him. Someone who constantly messed up, who couldn’t speak without stumbling over her words. I didn’t think that He, the very One who created the Heavens in one breath, the very One who designed every fiber of my being, the very One who sacrificed His son so I could become His Beloved, I didn’t think that His beautiful, boundless words of grace could be carried through someone like me.

I had the audacity to think that the Great I Am, wasn’t big enough to conceal my imperfections.

Through the years He has proved to me over and over again that He is enough. That yes, I will stumble, I will say the wrong things at the wrong time, and yes my voice does shake. But now my voice doesn’t shake from fear. No, it shakes when I know that God is using me, that He is breathing His very words into my soul, that His love for His children is overflowing and matchless. So now I will speak the truth even if my voice shakes.

And I have to tell ya, my voice is shaking pretty badly right now.

~LMF~