The Isaiah 1:17 Fight Every Believer Is Called To

It seems that injustice is constantly peering over our shoulder. Whether we witness acts of unfairness firsthand or read about them in a magazine, will we be women who battle against them, or will we turn our gaze away in hopes of seeing something more pleasant?

In Isaiah, we see only one of the many decrees in the Bible toward justice.

“Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of the orphans. Fight for the rights of widows” (Is. 1:17, NLT).

It is obvious that Jesus has a heart for uprightness, so we must fight with everything in us against anything that opposes it. Human trafficking is only one of many evils in the atmosphere (Eph. 6:12). The day I read about young girls being kidnapped and thrown into brothels was the day my heart roared with a cry against injustice. These women being robbed of their freedom are not willingly in prostitution. They are our courageous sisters, and like a lioness, we must boldly fight to protect our own.

But what does fighting look like? To battle against something so dark is to do more than volunteer time to a cause or donate money to an organization. These acts are necessary but if we do them without diligent prayer, they are fruitless.

We’ve probably all heard the myth that if you pluck one gray hair, many others will grow back in its place. Operating against injustice without prayer is quite similar. To continue on the matter of human trafficking, if we rescue one person or even a handful of people from the despair of such a crime, we are not tackling the root of the problem. While every single life matters, the only way to abolish such darkness is to eliminate the demand for it. If we are not praying for a shift in the atmosphere—in the way people think and live—the cycle will continue, and more people will fall victim to injustice.

I ardently urge you to discover what fills your heart with passion and righteous anger so deep that you can’t help but to learn more, consistently pray and earnestly fight to resolve. As women, I pray that we rise up as a sisterhood with one heart—the heart of Jesus.

To learn more about the fierce role you were created to fulfill, check out Lisa Bevere’s book Lioness Arising.