April 16, 2013 … Victory Over Injustice

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 106

Passage of the Day: Psalm 37: 6 [NLT] …  
6 He will make your innocence as clear as the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
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Contextual Study of today’s passage: Psalms, Chapter 37 [NLT] … Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage #1: Luke 6: 35 : [Jesus on being tested and tried through the fire of injustice and false accusation. ] …[NLT] … 
 35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don’t be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked.

  Reference Passage #2: Luke 23: 34 : [Jesus, … under the most severe of all tests of injustice. ] … [NLT] … Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

 My Journal for Today: Have you ever lived through a trial or testing of false accusation, prejudice, or social injustice of some type? Perhaps you’ve experienced that type of injustice or personal challenge … on the job, in your family, … or maybe even in the church. You knew that you were in the right; but you were falsely judged by others or may lumped in with some prejudicial slur.

Well, yesterday – April 15th – was the anniversary of the first day that Jackie Robinson – in 1947 – became the first black major-league baseball player, being signed by Branch Rickey to play for the then Brooklyn Dodgers. And many of you may know the testing and trials of prejudice and injustice which Robinson went through to open the door for other African-American players to come into the big leagues in baseball. His story of Christian courage and raging quietness in the face of racial slurs and outright abuse is now legendary; and it has recently been documented in the movie, “42,” which was titled by Robinson’s number when he played for the Dodgers. Few of us will ever go through as much as Jackie Robinson did in going through the caldron of injustice and living up to the teachings and values of One Who went before him … Jesus, the Christ, … the One, Who was Jackie Robinson’s Lord and Savior … and the One Who suffered the greatest injustice of all … so that Jackie, you, and me could be saved from our own humanity.

 Perhaps you’ve gone through the pressures and challenges of false accusation, injustice, or even prejudice; and if so, you know the emotions which inevitably surface in our humanity … hatred and the desire for revenge for the perpetrators of the injustice. But – though one can’t minimize the pain of such emotional torture – such instances in our lives are God’s way of showing His love and His strength in the presence of our sin-generated emotions. When, and if, we can be like Christ on His way to the cross or like Jackie Robinson, when he was being abused by bigots when he entered big-league baseball, we can provide a light of witness like almost none other in our ever-darkening world.

It takes supernatural strength to remain silent when others are cat-calling names at us. It takes the Holy Spirit, giving us God’s empowering grace, to be able to stand up to personal injustice. Because, in and of our own strength, we won’t be able to do what Christ did, going to the cross or what Jackie Robinson did out on the ball fields of Brooklyn in 1947. Oh, how I pray that we can go through any testing or trials of being submitted to personal injustice; and that we shine Christ’s light into the darkness of worldly social injustice when we, personally, are being assaulted.

My Prayer for Today … Lord, Your grace is sufficient; and I pray for that grace of strength when I’m under the gun of false accusation or social injustice in my life and my weakness is being tested. … Amen