What can God do?

‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.’ Isaiah 42 v1-5

This passage from the Bible was written about Jesus and what he would do. We believe that to act for social justice, to pray and campaign for change in the structures that hold so many in poverty is a noble cause, but without Jesus at its centre it is hollow. To put Jesus at the centre of all that SPEAK is and does, requires Jesus to be at the centre of each one of us that makes up the SPEAK network. This is why we are committed to learning more about what it means to be disciples of Jesus and to follow him. Through this, in combining our prayers with our campaigning, we believe that we add a powerful dynamic to our struggle for justice.

There is the potential danger for us in supporting a campaign to become so busy looking at the unjust structures of the world that we fail to deal with the injustice in our own hearts, and relationships. We need to recognise that God changes us in order to change society. With this in mind, in a SPEAK context we need to keep coming back to the importance of a relationship with Jesus as central to all that we do.

It is our hope in Jesus’ power to transform unjust situations that we look to and rely upon, not our own strength, wisdom or power.