Listen

Strong king who loves justice, you are the one who established what is fair. You worked justice and righteousness in Jacob. Magnify the Lord, our God! Bow low at his footstool! He is holy!

Psalm 99:4-5

Think

Justice is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. In the face of bigotry, violence, and hatred, you’ll often hear politicians and preachers encouraging people to enact justice. But as humans, our idea of justice or fairness can easily morph into something that looks very different from what God intends. So how are we to know what God wants? Or to say it another way, how are we to know what justice looks like to God?

When we see injustice, our immediate response is usually, “Somebody needs to do something.” But instead of rushing to act, it’s important we first allow God to act in us. Just as God worked justice in Jacob, God wants to work justice in us.

So yes, justice is something we do, but real justice is always rooted in relationship. We make ourselves available to God, and God in turn uses us to heal the world and make it whole. And when this happens, others will come to see and know that God is holy!

Chris Robertson

Pray

God, there’s a lot of stuff in our world that needs to be made right, which is why sometimes I’m tempted to take things into my own hands. But I entrust everything to you, knowing you want to work justice in me. Thank you for your justice. Amen.

Go

Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened.”

So may each of us keep asking and searching and knocking.

May we keep yearning, reaching, wanting, and watching for something more.

And regardless of what we’re doing or where we’re going, may we come to every moment with the expectation that God wants to know us, and we can know God.