The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor...to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities...

 Isaiah 61:1, 3-4

  God has a pattern for transforming broken people and broken places. It is revealed simply in Isaiah chapter 61. The pattern has two parts. First, God moves into the lives of broken people. He did this most clearly through the sending of Jesus. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was God’s anointed One to bring redemption and healing; to comfort those who mourn and bind up the brokenhearted. Through the ministry of Jesus, broken people are renewed and restored. That’s the first part of the pattern. The second part is that the broken people who are now transformed people become themselves transformers; God uses them to restore their broken communities. Think of what Isaiah 61 tells us about the people whom God meets, heals, and transforms. It says that they will be “oaks of righteousness” who will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated. 

We have the opportunity to participate in this pattern as we minister among the poor. We are the Body of Christ, and God calls us to move into the lives of the poor, believing that His power can transform them into “oaks of righteousness” whom He can use to advance His Kingdom in the “places long devastated.”

Now a drug addict or homeless person may not appear to be an “oak of righteousness” (or even a seedling of righteousness!) Perhaps that’s why secularists who work among the poor have limited goals for the beneficiaries of their services. Secularists are happy if their programs help a homeless man to get sober, get a job, secure an apartment, and become a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen. Christians, through their ministries, want the same homeless man to do all that and to become a servant of others -- perhaps walking the streets and ministering among the homeless as one who has been there and, by God’s grace, made it out. In our labors among the broken and destitute, we envision people whom God can transform into leaders who advance His Kingdom in marvelous ways.

For further thought...

  1) Pray for Sheila Anderson, who ministers among low-income single mothers living in public housing in Richmond, Virginia. Several years ago, Sheila was hopelessly addicted to crack cocaine. She had lost her home, had her children taken away from her by the state, and was reduced to selling her own body for money to buy drugs. She gave her life to Christ at the urging of a tele-evangelist (!) and was welcomed into a small Pentecostal fellowship in her neighborhood. That church loved and discipled her, helped her beat her addiction, regain her children, establish a home, and secure employment. Now, in the words of her pastor, Sheila is a “pillar of the church” and an active evangelist in the neighborhood. God has made this once-broken woman into an “oak of righteousness” for His glory!

2) This passage reminds that it is God’s job to transform people. We have our responsibilities to love and serve the needy, but only God can work change and renewal in their hearts. It is freeing to remember this, for there will be times in our service and mercy ministries when we do everything “right,” and yet the beneficiary does not change. God does not want us to carry a false burden of guilt at those times, but rather, desires that we commit the person to His care, asking Him to do the work of inward renewal that only He can do.

© 2004, Amy Sherman. From Sharing God’s Heart for the Poor, used by permission.