100 Days of HopeSample

Made In God’s Image

Poverty is much deeper than physical, economic or sociological need. You know the brokenness of our world does not merely affect the economically underprivileged. After all, observing the plight of the poor doesn’t just give us a dispassionate ‘to do’ list of chores we might want to get to one day. The plight of the poor stirs a passion that is more intense than a simple sense of urgency. The passion to fight injustice reaches deep down into our core. 

Why is that? 

The Bible tells us that we were created to fill, rule, and subdue the earth as divine image bearers. We are made to tend to the world, ensuring that it stays the way God wanted it. This goes to the heart of not only who we are, but, perhaps even more importantly, what we are for. We were not created to force our own character and values on the universe - that would be to bear our own image instead of the divine image. We were created to fill, rule, and subdue the universe with the love and justice of our Triune God. And when we encounter a world that does not reflect His character, we know deep down that we are not dealing with someone else’s problem.  

And yet our God is not a God that leaves us in our brokenness. Let us look first for our own redemption, and then for the redemption of every other aspect of Creation that does not accurately reflect its Creator’s character until He returns and completes the good work that He began and called us to join—for His Glory and for our good. 

Prayer: Lord, make us divine image-bearers in a broken world.