GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 31 ~ ~ Romans 8:31 ~ ~ “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Continuing with excerpts from “The Pleasures of God” by John Piper
Since partial external conformity of unbelievers to God’s designs of justice and honesty does in one way delight the heart of God, it was right for William Wilberforce to devote twenty years of his life in the British Parliament to the abolition of the English slave trading, even though the great majority of those merchants who gave up the trade did it under constraint and not for any holy reasons at all. It was the work of God’s grace that rid England of the barbarisms of the African slave trade. Therefore the Lord looked down WITH DELIGHT on February 22, 18-7, when the House of commons passed the decisive bill. The same will be true when persevering pro-life forces bring an end to the wanton, legalized child-killing in America.
Yes, God delighted most in the living POWER OF HOLINESS in the life of Wilberforce and Henry Thornton as they embraced one another and frolicked in the snow like schoolboys outside the chamber. In a different and mysterious way, God also delighted in the SHELL OF HOLINESS that took shape in English society when it was purged of the slave trade once and for all. For he delights in the work of his hands.
John Wesley, the great evangelist, wrote to Wilberforce to strengthen his hand in God. He said:
“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils, but if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary in well doing….”
My prayer is that the truth of God’s pleasure in public justice will inspire any in our day to take up the mantle of William Wilberforce and wear it into the battle against the manifold injustices of our day.
Few of these injustices will give way with brief spurts of outrage. It will take a deep commitment, like Wilberforce’s. May the vision of God’s passion sustain our passion until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24)
(Since this book was published, so much more evil has been flowing through this world. It is ever, so much more important that Christians stand for God’s word and for the Truth in the midst of the ever-increasing lies and perversions. Nothing is totally true, except the Word of God, and if Christians don’t stand up for that, who will? Time is short, and we need to tell as many people as we can about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Eternity is forever!)