Support without Action Isn’t Anything at All

October 8, 2013

3 min read

I’ve been a Christian since I was four-years-old.  I had always said I was a supporter of Israel; it was ingrained in me to support Israel from a young age.  I believed Israel had favor with God.  Israel support was important, and it was a part of me as far as I was concerned.

I remember when I was graduating high school and preparing for college, my dad gave me one sound word of advice, just one, and it was:  “when you go to look for a church, just make sure they do not teach that the church replaced Israel”.  So, I went and found a church that did not teach that the church replaced Israel.

I had an emotional relationship with Israel support, I felt support in my heart, but I didn’t do anything with it.  The support I resolved in my heart for Israel didn’t translate into action.  It never occurred to me that there was even action to translate it into.

I learned better a few years later, I didn’t know it when I joined Agape Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, but my new pastor was on the executive board of the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States, and I ended up heavily involved in that organization’s events and advocacy.

I learned something that shook me to my core…Israel support can be translated into action.  Not only can it be, I am actually responsible for turning Israel support into action, because to be perfectly honest, support without action isn’t really anything at all.

In the Bible I found:

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. (James 2:14-18)

I realized when I read this that I had a faith, a belief system, about Israel; however, I didn’t put any corresponding action with it, therefore my faith, or my support, was dead.

The scriptures go on to say in verse 24, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”  I became determined to put my action where my faith was and make supporting Israel important to me because I knew it was important to God.

It is so important to God, in fact, that in Genesis 12:3 God told Abraham “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you…”  Another way to look at “him who curses you” would be “and I will curse him who lightly esteems you”.  I was not willing to lightly esteem what God had blessed.

I found three things every Christian should do to support Israel.  Not in order to get blessed, not in order to fulfill a religious ‘obligation’, but in order to choose to be eager about what God is interested in, in order to express the heart of God toward His chosen people.

First and foremost, we must pray for Israel.  Not just every once in a while, but every day.  I pray Psalm 122:6, for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem.  I pray for Israel’s leaders and for Israel’s protection.  I pray for the IDF and for the families of the citizens of Israel.

Secondly, we should bless Israel financially.  I choose to give of my resources to organizations who bless Israel and to organizations in Israel.  In Romans 15:27 it says, “For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their [Israel’s] spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in materials things.”

Finally, we should be prepared to make the case for Israel.  The Bible exhorts us to “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).  There is a hope within us concerning Israel and we should always be ready to give a defense for that hope to anyone who asks us.

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