“Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.” (Jacob 3:1)
I, like so many of you, have been swept up in the podcast world. I love to listen to podcasts when I am running, cleaning my house, or driving my kids all over tarnation for their various activities. We live in a small, mostly rural area so it is a 30 minute drive to everything. I have a lot of time to listen to podcasts in the car… but I digress.
Recently I have been listening to a true crime podcast that explores wrongful convictions. I have been struck by how vital it is to have a good lawyer when you are charged with a crime regardless of if you are guilty or innocent. Without one, an innocent person can be convicted even when there is little evidence presented against them. It is a “he said, she said” situation a lot of times and if the defense attorney doesn’t know the facts of the case or the laws surrounding the presentation of evidence well, they can make errors which are hard to overcome. Overturning a wrongful conviction through appeals and post-conviction relief takes years. An innocent person can spend decades in prison as a result of not having a good advocate in their initial trial.
How wonderful it is, then, to know that we will have the best advocate to plead our cause at judgement. He has a perfect knowledge of all sides of the case. He love us unconditionally. He sees our hearts, and knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows our past and how that affects the way we react to difficult situations. He knows how often we have prayed and how hard we have worked. He knows about our good days and our bad days. He has been there to console and comfort us through all our trials. And he will be there to stand at our side and plead for us. We are ensured fairness, mercy and love when we stand at judgment day. I am incredibly grateful for that knowledge.
Meditation and Journaling Prompt: What does it mean to you to have someone who will “plead your cause?”
Mindfulness Tip: “When thoughts are pressing in during meditation, rather than struggle with them, see them as a curious parade of strangers that you are watching from a bench on the sidewalk. Each passerby is different—some silly, some menacing, some dull. You wouldn’t hop up and try to stop a stranger you didn’t like the looks of; you’d just let him pass and see who was coming along next. Try treating your thoughts the same way.” (Rogers, Holly B. 2016. “The Mindful Twenty-Something.” Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.)
