Eat the Cookie... Buy the Shoes

by Joyce Meyer

  Most of us would help our families or people we know intimately if they were in need, but the farther removed people are from our personal circles, the less likely we are to care about them or be willing to get involved in helping them. I believe God wants to change that. I realize that as an individual I cannot fully meet every need I hear about, but I can certainly be open to letting God show me if there is something I can do. I am determined to no longer just assume I can’t do anything about the needs I become aware of. I have come to realize that is a passive way of looking at needs, and not the way God wants me to approach them.

  The World Needs the Church to Be the Church

  Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him and all three times, when Peter said, “Yes,” Jesus answered with, “Then feed My sheep” or “Feed My lambs” (see John 21:15–17). Jesus was not speaking of feeding animals; He was talking about helping His people. On several occasions He referred to Himself as a shepherd and to His people as sheep, so Peter knew exactly what He was talking about.

  It seems to me that Jesus is saying in these verses that if we love Him we should be helping other people, not simply gathering in buildings on Sunday morning to follow rules and rituals. Of course, we should want to go to church to fellowship, worship God and learn, but church should also be a place from which we help others. If a church is not involved in reaching the lost around the world and helping oppressed people including widows, orphans, the poor and needy, then I am not at all sure they have the right to call themselves a church.

  People by the tens of thousands have stopped going to church, and spiritual leaders worldwide are concerned about the decline in church attendance. I believe the reason for this decline is largely that many churches have become religious centers with no real life in them. The apostle John said that we know we have passed over out of death into life by the fact that we love the brethren and he who does not love is held and kept continually in spiritual death (see 1 John 3:14). If a church is not overflowing with the genuine love of God, how can it be filled with life?

  I have heard that in Europe another cathedral or church building closes almost every week and that many of them are being purchased by Muslim groups and turned into mosques. Surely that is not God’s intended destiny for the church of Jesus Christ. A lot of great churches are doing exactly what they should be doing and they are growing and full of life because of it. But, it is safe to say, they are the exception and not the majority of churches.

  The early church, which we read about in the book of Acts, was a very powerful church. It shook the known world of its time and its influence is still being felt around the world today. It was unified and all the people who were part of it were busy helping the people they knew to be in need. They helped those they knew personally and those they heard about in other towns and cities through the apostles who came to visit and teach them.

  The early church grew rapidly and had a wonderful reputation because it was filled with people who genuinely loved one another. What the world needs is love, not religion! It needs God; and God is love. If we agree and all get involved we can start a Love Revolution, a movement that will shake the world once again for the glory of God!

  Learn to Do Right

  It is simply wrong to see or hear of someone in need and do absolutely nothing. Isaiah the prophet said: “Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and correct the oppressor, Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isa. 1:17).

  The purpose of teaching and instruction is to help us learn what is right and encourage us to do it. Just a few years ago, I had no idea how strongly God felt about my working to bring justice to the oppressed, but once I did learn, I started doing it.

  God has been instructing people how to treat the fatherless, the widows, the oppressed and the poor since He gave the law, in Old Testament times. Speaking through Moses, He said, “You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child” (Exod. 22:22). God is not partial, “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18). God told the people that if they fed the stranger, the temporary resident, the widow and the fatherless, He would bless the work of their hands (see Deut. 14:29). Please notice that all of these groups—widows, strangers, the fatherless—would probably be full of very lonely people. God cares about the lonely!

  Lonely and Forgotten

  I cannot imagine how lonely and forgotten an orphan girl who has been forced into prostitution in order to survive feels.

  Statistics say:

  Two million girls between ages five and fifteen are introduced into the commercial sex market each year.

  89 percent of prostitutes want to escape.

  At least two hundred thousand women and children work in prostitution in Thailand and one third of them are under the age of eighteen. Girls as young as six years old work as prostitutes.

  One time, a doctor found thirty-five men using a girl in one hour.

  Are all of these girls orphans? No, not all of them are official orphans in terms of not having any parents. But, they are orphans in God’s eyes because they either have no parents or the parents they have can’t or don’t want to take care of them.

  Teen Prostitution

  * * *

  Sell your body for the pleasure of evil men or die of starvation. It’s a terrible choice that no one should ever have to make. Though she’s just nineteen years old, Birtukan has made this choice since she was fourteen. And with every choice, her heart breaks a little more and her soul is destroyed. With all she’s been through, it’s a miracle she still feels anything at all.

  She finds strength when she gazes into the eyes of her seven-month-old daughter, Aamina. “I make this choice because I don’t want my daughter to do the same.” Her Ethiopian name, Aamina, means “safe,” and Birtukan has decided she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her promise to keep her daughter safe.

  She does not sell her body for greed or self-pleasure. She sells her body to survive. She lives and performs her work in a four-by-nine-foot room. She’s worked for five years—no days off… no vacation… no rest. She closes her eyes and thinks about Aamina, while as many as fifteen men a day abuse her body to satisfy their evil desires. The pain is unimaginable, but it is the only way she knows to provide food and a place to sleep. When she thinks of how much she loves Aamina, she can’t comprehend how her own mother could have abandoned her when she was just five years old.

  Before she came to what is referred to as the red-light district in Addis Ababa, she was dying of starvation. “I had hope, but that hope seems far from me now. I know God is with me and loves me. I don’t know any other way to live.” A faint glimmer of hope remains for a day when survival won’t cost her a piece of her heart, her soul, and her damaged body.

  Today, those hopes will have to wait. Her next customer just arrived.

  Statistics 1 say:

  The average age of entry into prostitution worldwide is thirteen to fourteen years old.

  75 percent of prostitutes are under the age of twenty-five.

  Seeing a New Level of Degradation and Doing Something about It

  When I went to India, to the red-light district (the prostitution area) in one of the slums, I was introduced to a new level of degradation. Not only was the entire area filthy beyond description, it was also filled with brothels. I was taken into one that consisted of three small rooms with three beds in each room. None of these bed areas had any privacy at all. The girls or women serviced men in these small rooms mainly at night, hoping to make enough money to be able to eat and feed their children if they had any, and many of them did. Where were their children while they worked? They either played in the hallway where they could easily access the rooms their moms were in or they were given alcohol to put them to sleep so they could not bother their mothers. A few of them had learned about our feeding and school program and we were able to care for them during these hours so they
did not have to witness what was going on at home. Home! These little children live in brothels!

  Without help, most of the female children—little girls—will merely transition into the life of prostitution as soon as they are old enough. These women don’t live like this because they want to; they have no other choice. They are uneducated and have grown up in the midst of poverty that most of us would not even begin to understand. Some of them are actually owned by pimps who, for all intents and purposes, keep them prisoners and beat them if they don’t make enough money.

  I am happy to say that we have initiated a program to help rescue them. First, we have been working in this area for at least three years alongside some other local ministries, and the number of prostitutes has dropped from three thousand to three hundred. Some people just need a little hope or help, and they need someone to tell them they can make a change and show them how to do it.

  Our ministry has purchased several hundred acres of property about three hours away from the red-light district, and we have built a village complete with a training center to teach these women a trade that will enable them to support themselves and their families without resorting to prostitution. We moved the first one hundred women and children to the Restoration Center in February 2008 and intend to move all of those who want to make a change.

  It was so heartwarming for me to listen to the little girls and especially the teenagers giggle out loud when I showed them the shower and toilet facilities they would have. You see, they had never taken a bath in any way other than pouring a bucket of water over themselves behind a building somewhere. To be able to be part of putting smiles on their faces and giving them hope is an amazing feeling. It definitely feels better than the selfish, self-centered way I once lived. The partners of our ministry are largely responsible for this outreach in India because it is their faithful giving that pays for it, and we appreciate them deeply.

  I might add that some of the older women trapped in prostitution are widows. Their husbands have died or have been killed in some instances and left them with no means of support, so once again they resort to the only thing they can think of to make money.

  We can learn to do what is right to help the oppressed in the world. All we need is information and determination and we can make a positive difference in many people’s lives. If each of us will do our part we can start a revolution of love.

  Injustice Is Everywhere

  Injustice abounds not only in third-world countries but also in our neighborhoods and cities everywhere. There are people we work with who have desperate needs. We walk by them on the street and we encounter them at the marketplace. Injustice has many faces. It may be seen in the face of a woman whose husband left her with three small children for another woman. It may be in the face of a girl or boy who was sexually or physically abused while growing up by parents or other adults. It may be seen in the face of a father raised in the ghetto, who is a third-generation family member living on welfare. He would like to live better, but he honestly doesn’t even begin to know what to do. He has very little education and has never even seen anyone live any differently than he does except perhaps on television.

  Some people do overcome and rise up out of the tragedy of injustice, but many don’t. Perhaps they need you or me or someone we know to invest in them. Our inner city ministry works in the public schools to help children learn to read and write. We have asked for volunteers to help tutor the children and it is discouraging to think about how few people are willing to even give an hour a week for something like this. Of course, we think, “Someone” should certainly help these children, but somehow we are not the ones to show up and do the helping! We have our excuses and they soothe our consciences, but are they acceptable to God? For years, I made excuses about everything I did not want to do, but I have discovered a truth that has become one of my favorite sayings: “Indifference makes excuses; love finds a way.”

  Indifference makes excuses; love finds a way.

  The Standard for Righteousness

  In the Bible, beginning in the Old Testament, we see one example after another of people who were very involved in helping the poor and needy. Job was one of those people. He said that by being eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and a father to the poor and needy, he had put on righteousness (see Job 29:14–16). The phrase “put on” has a specific meaning that we don’t want to miss. Think of it this way: When I put on my clothes, I do so on purpose. I don’t stand passively in my closet and wait for them to jump off the hangers and onto my body. I carefully select each piece and not only do I put it on, but I also make sure it looks good on me.

  God said that Job was a righteous man and Job said that he “put on” righteousness. In other words, he did it on purpose. The standard for righteousness in Job’s day demanded helping widows, orphans, the poor and needy, and all who were oppressed.

  In our society today we don’t have many standards left. It seems that a majority of people just do what they feel like doing, and selfishness rules. We need standards that produce men and women of integrity, truth, honesty, honor, faithfulness, loyalty, and genuine care for hurting people. If more people had such qualities, our world would be a completely different place. Your response might be, “Yes, I wish we did have that today,” but don’t forget that wishing does no good at all. We must take action. Our world will be changed only as the people in it change—and that change has to start with each one of us. We must all carry the torch and say, “I am the Love Revolution!”

  Esther, the young Jewish maiden you read about in chapter four, who eventually became a queen, commanded that gifts be sent to the poor when she and her countrymen celebrated their freedom. Part of our celebrating the good things that God has done for us should be to remember to reach out to those who are still in need. A friend of mine is on a committee in her church that reaches out to homeless shelters at Christmas. The church gets a list of all the children living at a particular shelter, complete with the children’s ages and clothing sizes. Church members who are able to do so choose a child’s name and purchase a Christmas gift just for that child. In December, a Christmas party is held at the shelter where there’s lots of food, Christmas music, stories about Jesus’ birth and His love for each child, and, of course, the gifts are given to each child.

  After the party the church members feel good about helping the homeless children, but many have also said that when they return home after the party, they’re more grateful for their own homes and blessings than they were before the party.

  It is very good for us to see and experience the needs of others firsthand because it brings a fresh awareness of how blessed we are. Hopefully it also makes us realize how much we could be doing if we put forth an effort. People tend to get more generous at Christmas time and many people do try to help someone else, but we need to realize that the poor and marginalized are needy all the time, and not just once a year at Christmas.

  As I write today Dave and I are in a hotel that has an extremely small bathroom and shower. It is so small that Dave’s head touches the ceiling. At first he murmured just a tiny bit about the discomfort, but then he remembered the people we have met who have no water and have to walk hours just to bring home enough dirty water to help their families survive. These people rarely take baths and if they do it is not in a bathroom with a shower. We have both discovered that reaching out to needy people is a blessing to us because it helps us not to murmur and complain, but to give thanks in all things as God wants us to do.

  Boaz, a wealthy man and leader in his community left what the Bible calls handfuls on purpose (Ruth 2:16) in his fields for Ruth to find and collect to be used to feed herself and her mother-in-law. Both Ruth and Naomi were widows and they were poor. The law in that day commanded that not all the grain be harvested from the fields. The people had to leave some for the poor to come and glean out of the fields so they too could eat. We see over and over that God always provided for the poor. But His provision did not fa
ll out of the sky or just miraculously appear; He provided through people.

  Love in Action

  At Joyce Meyer Ministries, we have an account called “Love in Action.” The ministry and employees can give money to this account specifically to be used for the needs of fellow employees who might be experiencing a difficult time financially for one reason or another. Perhaps sickness has left them with a burden, or a special need with a child may have gotten them in distress. We decided we wanted to be prepared to help those among us who had genuine needs and could not help themselves.

  If you have a Bible study group or even a group of friends interested in being part of the Love Revolution, one thing you can do is select a treasurer or open a special bank account and let everyone donate to that special fund each week or month. You can call it “Love in Action,” if you want to or choose your own name, but use it to meet needs that arise. Often we hear about needs and wish we had more money. Why not start saving for those times so you can be prepared? If you cannot find a group that is interested, then find one or two people and if you have to, do it by yourself, but refuse to do nothing!

  Why Do I Need My Arm if I Don’t Use It to Help Somebody?

  One of the shocking statements I discovered while studying how Job responded to the poor was his observation that if he did not use his arm to help the hurting, then somebody should pull it off his body (see Job 31:21–22). This caused me to realize just how serious he was about helping people. Am I willing to be that serious? Are you?