"Learn to do what is good, pursue justice, correct the oppressor, defend the rights of the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." Isaiah 1:17

Last week our church had a showing of the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." Apologies if you haven't seen it already, but it's very old, so I don't feel too bad about spoiling it a little bit for you. (Though not the whole thing. I do encourage you to see it.) In that movie, George, who's the protagonist, sees what life would be like had he never existed. He learns that his family is drastically different and the entire town is subject to the whims of a really greedy and cruel man.

This stands out because in this passage, the words were spoken to a religious community who thought that they were doing good. They were participating in religious ceremony, they were offering prayers - but maybe, in reality, they were being unintentionally cruel.

Instead, God is calling them to reflect His own heart by bringing peace to those who can't look out for themselves. I think that's the point of the verse 17, where it says "defend the rights of the fatherless, defend the widow's cause." Those are examples or images of people who can't look out for themselves.

Certainly, this is a daunting task for us! I find almost paralyzing! There are two things that I thought, or really three things that can help us or help me with this "must-do paralysis."

The first: God's not calling us to do just do one more thing during the holiday. Instead, He's desiring us to reflect what he has already done for us - to those around us. Rhe result of that will be cleansing, specifically cleansing via Jesus. We see that in verse 18, which is no doubt familiar to some of you. "Come, let us settle this," says the Lord, "Though your sins are scarlet, they will be white as snow. Though they are crimson red, they will be like wool." So there's this idea of cleansing. Even though they're full of sin, God's going to cleanse them and that's the result of that peace.

Unlike It's a Wonderful Life," it's rare that in life - and in ministry - we get to see the results or impact of our lives. We can still trust that God is at work in our lives!

The second thing that helps me when I face this "must-do paralysis" is this: Doing what is right can be learned.

It's not necessarily something that we're going to master right away, but the Holy Spirit is our teacher. This learning is what I think is implied in verse 17 when He says, "learn to do what is good, pursue justice." What that means, and what that looks like, is learned over time. It's not something that we need to master right away.

God is looking at our hearts. He's not looking for us to just do religious ceremony, but have hearts that reflect His own.

Written by Craig Hunt