Many of you have heard and shared about the fighting and bombing in Syria, and specifically in the city of Aleppo. While the hope is that the worst is over, the aftermath of suffering will go on.
Joe Carter put together a helpful list for The Gospel Coalition with “9 Things You Should Know About Aleppo and the Syrian Crisis” if you’d like to read more about the situation.
Joe shares that during the siege, approximately 40 percent of the population in eastern Aleppo were children. It’s a heartbreaking situation, and if you’ve seen the pictures and watched the videos, you can’t help but be broken about the suffering that has taken place there. (Recent news indicates that the fighting may be over in Aleppo. Still, there’s countless suffering people living in absolute devastation in the city. And there’s no telling what Syrian city might be next in the conflict.)
It’s easy to be paralyzed by the enormity of the needs in Syria and other places in the world. But in an article for the ERLC, Richard Stearns shares three things we can each do:
- Pray.
- Tell our congressional representatives that the U.S. government needs to do more to stop Syria’s bleeding.
- Give to organizations providing relief to Syrians.
I believe we must ask ourselves, “If Christ were on the other side of the street, or the city, or the other side of the world, and he was hungry, thirsty, and helpless, or imprisoned for his faith, would we help him?” Any professing Christian would have to say yes. But we mustn’t forget what Christ himself says in Matthew 25: He is in our neighborhood, community, city, country, and across the world, in the form of poor and needy people—and especially in those who are persecuted for their faith. (In fact, Aleppo contains Syria’s largest population of Christians.)
I encourage you to meditate on these verses from God’s Word:
“Feed the hungry and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as day” (Isaiah 58:10-11, NLT).
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:16-19).
photo credit: MaximilianV Syrian Refugee via photopin (license)
