Hope in Times of Need

Rules

Hope in times of need

The Lord is good, 

a strong refuge in times of trouble.

He cares for those who hope in him.

From Nahum 1:7

O Lord, open my eyes
that I may see the need of others,
open my ears that I may hear their cries,
open my heart so that they need not be without succour.

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor
because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to these places.
Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
be able to do some work of peace for thee.
©Alan Paton

Alan Paton probably is unknown to many of my generation, but we all should read and appreciate his work. 

"Perhaps the more known is Cry, My beloved Country, which has been recognized as "...American publisher Bennett Cerf remarked at that year's meeting of the American Booksellers Association that there had been "only three novels published since the first of the year that were worth reading… Cry, The Beloved Country, The Ides of March, and The Naked and the Dead."[2] "

Paton was from South Africa and fought apartheid in ways that are impossible to put here in words. But, this quote from Cry, My Beloved Country, might say more:

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

Alan Paton quotes

A brave man in a country that feared him, he carried a banner of hope for the people who desperately needed hope.

This version of Cry Freedom was mid-1980s, with Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline. It is an excellent movie. If possible, watch it.