Weapon of Warfare

 "The effective, FERVENT PRAYER of a righteous man AVAILS MUCH."-James 5:16

As the new year began, I know everyone has their New Year's Resolutions and those 'things' they want to do or those pounds they want to lose. But often times, those New Year's Resolutions are very selfish or focused on things of this world. Not that there's anything wrong with losing a few pounds... I'd definitely like to be in better shape!... But this year I really feel like God's calling me to grow closer to Him on a daily basis.

I've been in prayer and fasting for the past few days along with the A21 Campaign. It's been such a blessing as I've been in constant prayer and thought for these victims of slavery. Obviously it's not easy thinking about the awful crimes that are being committed and the acts of the traffickers, but there's just something freeing knowing that there is HOPE out there and even saving one life is a huge difference! It is easy to be overwhelmed by the issue of human trafficking and think that we cannot make a difference. But do not forget that each one of us has at our disposal the most powerful weapon of warfare -- and that is prayer!

The A21 Campaign has a prayer guide that leads you with scripture on how to prayer for specific areas of Human Trafficking. They list them like this: For the Victims, For the Traffickers, For Governments, Against Root Causes, For Increased Global Awareness, For the Church and The A21 Campaign. Under each section there are specific things to pray for a verses to go along.

Today I'm focusing on praying for the victims: For their Strength & Salvation, For their Protection, Freedom & Justice and For their Hope & Healing. Here are the verses (from The Message) that we can pray together:

FOR THEIR STRENGTH & SALVATION:

"When I walk into the thick of trouble, keep me alive in the angry turmoil. With one hand strike my foes, With your other hand save me" -Ps. 138: 7 

"He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts." - Is. 40:29 

"For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost."  - Luke 19:10 

FOR THEIR PROTECTION, FREEDOM & JUSTICE:

"Your job is to stand up for the powerless, and prosecute all those who exploit them." - Ps. 82:4

"God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet." - Ps. 103:6

"He always does what he says -7 he defends the wronged, he feeds the hungry. God frees prisoners -8 he gives sight to the blind, he lifts up the fallen.9 protects strangers, takes the side of orphans and widows, but makes short work of the wicked." - Ps. 146: 6b-9 

FOR THEIR HOPE & HEALING:

"1 I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened.2 He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn't slip." - Ps. 40:1-2

"As for you, I'll come with healing, curing the incurable, because they all gave up on you and dismissed you as hopeless." - Jer. 30:17

"There's hope for your children.' God's Decree." - Jer. 31:17 

These are all very powerful, but I think the one that really hit me the hardest was Psalm 8:24: "Your job is to stand up for the powerless, and prosecute all those who exploit them." Whew. That's a serious job right there. Especially when we think about how many human beings are enslaved today. The New American Standard Version reads, "Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked." If we all truly stood up and focused on doing this, we would begin to see change at a more rapid pace. As Christians, we are called to LOVE others. God loved us so much that He sent His ONLY son to go in our place and rescued us from an eternal life in hell. If we are living a life under Jesus' example, we too should be rescuing others from evil. In this case, Human Trafficking is the evil and because we should love all, we need to stand up and speak for these victims who have no freedom to speak for themselves.

Our community has formed an outreach group called ECHO (Emerald Coast Humanity Outreach) and I'm so pumped that so many people (not just church members, but also police officers, lawyers, teachers and board members) have joined together to stand up to this evil that is lurking in our community. It starts with awareness and education and as people begin to learn about this crime, they begin to become more passionate about making a difference. I think what has really encouraged people to get involved around here is them hearing that it is happening in our hotels, restaurants and clubs in our backyard. Woah buddy... I've seen some mommas in the meetings ON FIRE to kick this evil out of here! Love it!

I'm so thankful that Christine Cain was able to speak at our church at such an important time and make so many more people aware. I've been involved and educating myself on human trafficking awareness for the past year and it is an answer to prayer seeing how many eyes have been opened and hearts softened for these victims. I pray that over the next few days of prayer and fasting along with the A21 Campaign, we will just see the beginning of what God is doing in our community and world and that we will see an exponential increase of change in the coming months.

Praise Jesus for victories! Even if we save one life, we have made a difference! One of my prayers is that prayer warriors will raise up and be the foundation of this effort going forth. It starts there. Because the chains of Human Trafficking are so deep, dark and twisted, this effort truly must be held in God's hands. As humans, we can't fight this battle alone. Continually be praying and using the strongest WEAPON OF WARFARE that we have been given and make a commitment to stand TOGETHER in prayer! Together we can fight for justice!