Hunger

By: Monique Smith

Stop. Hunger. Now. Familiar with the phrase? There are many social justice groups all over the country, out with a goal to stop hunger in the world, especially child hunger. With the huge unfailing passion I have for young people, my heart melts every time I see a young person hungry or struggling in society. When hearing statistics about the number of children who die every hour due to hunger, I can’t describe the feeling of sorrow and confusion I have. So with this passion, when an opportunity presents itself where I can donate to a trustworthy missions group to feed those kids, I donate. However, during the Joyce Meyer meeting I attended earlier today (March 17^th), I had an internal conflict and God quickly gave me revelation about the issue.

The conflict I was having was this: 1. Why are all these people reaching out to these kids over seas that are hungry, when we have kids right in our community who do not have enough to eat? Take a look at DC, the nation’s capital; the poverty/starvation rate is ridiculously high. Why don’t we fix our problems here and then move on? Yes, I know we are the richest country in the world and could stand to donate to other countries, but our people here need the money too. (That last thought was very selfish, I know, but I’m being totally transparent here).

Conviction the Lord gave me: Immediately after Joyce shared her mission video with us and asked us to donate financially to her overseas food ministry, I thought back to the beginning of the program when she told us the amount of food that was collected via donations from everyone who attended the conference in Winston-Salem, NC. With the conference being free, everyone was encouraged to bring can foods to donate. I forget the amount of food that was collected but I know it was up in the thousands. Why was that convicting? Because Joyce stated that all of the food that was collected would be donated to food banks and distributed to hungry families in the Winston-Salem area. (So that was a shot in the gut to the internal conflict I was having about there not being enough done at “home” for our kids).

Revelation the Lord gave me was this: The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

God is calling this nation and the world to attention with the destruction we are bringing on ourselves. All of this hunger, violence, financial trouble, terrorism, etc. is brought on our country and the world simply because of the lack of reverence for God. Until this nation realizes that and stops blaming these social issues on God and starts looking at themselves, this world will continue to deal with these issues. The world must repent and turn to God for the solution for these issues.

So with that being known, that should be an energizer to believers all across the world to amp up the spreading of the gospel. By spreading the gospel, we introduce or bring others back to Christ, which in turn allows them to realize their sins, leading to repentance, and then the healing of the world! How great is this! This definitely encouraged me to continue being a standout for Christ and being a light because child hunger is an issue that I care about and that can not end 100% until this nation turns back to God.

Whew! I pray that blessed you all and brought some revelation to your heart as it did mine.

Prayer: Dear Lord, I love you so much. Thank you for conviction and revelation. Thank you for speaking directly to my heart and giving me insight. God please give me more boldness and opportunity to spread the gospel to those who need to hear the Word! Lord I know and realize it is my responsibility, as laid out in the great commission to go out and preach the gospel, so I accept this charge today and want to be better at doing so. Lord you have blessed me so much and I am so much more fortunate than many people in this world. I want to be able to show my appreciation and gratitude by being a blessing to the poor. I understand that you are not allowing people to suffer because you are evil, but because I am evil and bring the consequences of my sin on myself and others around me. Help me Lord so I can live a holy and acceptable life and to become rooted and grounded in you! You are so worthy Lord! In Jesus name, Amen.