Chosen

In life there are seasons of fulfillment and seasons of waiting.  Times when I’ve asked God for something that I feel is something that he has called me to and there is no immediate answer.  I don’t feel like I’ve been told no, I’ve just been told to wait.  And while those seasons are difficult to live through, some more so than others, the things that I’m waiting for aren’t essential to my survival.  I still have a home and food and clothes.  These are just desires.  Some that God has placed on my heart and some that the world has.  And so I wait, but I wait in comfort.

There are some whose wait isn’t as comfortable.  Children throughout the world who are living in poverty.  Living in huts without doors or windows.  Living in fear of a mudslide or not having anything to eat.  Those children pray for deliverance.  Pray for food and clothes and a stable shelter.  Maybe pray for their parents to find jobs or for themselves to find one so that they can help provide.

The work of Compassion is to go into those areas and provide the children with what they’ve been waiting for.  Education.  Food.  Health care.  They meet the physical needs of these children as their parents register them at their church to enter them into the Compassion program.  Immediately the children start getting their physical needs met.  There is no more waiting for help, it has arrived.

But there is an element of Compassion that some children still have to wait for.  They have been registered in the program.  Their picture has been taken.  They are receiving the physical benefits and are hearing the Word of God spoken into their lives.  But they haven’t yet been chosen to have a sponsor relationship with someone.  They then enter into a season of waiting to be chosen.  And that season will be difficult as well.

It will be difficult as well because what better time for Satan to speak in their lives that they are worthless and won’t amount to anything than a period when they are waiting for someone out there with the resources to say “I choose you.”

There are 561 children (when I wrote this post) on Compassion’s website who have been waiting for a sponsor for more than six months.  These children are getting their physical needs met, they’re getting spiritual needs met, and are getting relational needs met by the workers in their community.  But they are waiting for a sponsor.  They are waiting amidst their friends who receive letters from sponsors and Christmas cards.  Waiting for someone to say “I choose you and I want to invest in your life and have a sponsor relationship with you.”

In this economy it is not always possible to reach out and help those in need.  Sometimes we are in situations where we ourselves need help. If you are able and feel led, please sponsor one of these children and help increase the chances that they themselves will choose to believe in themselves.  If you can’t make that commitment right now, I urge you to pray for these children and for others to be moved to sponsor these children who are waiting for someone to say that they believe in them and that they can rise out of poverty.