Watch My Purse

Perhaps you saw it on the news. A woman, incensed that some teenagers were stealing liquor from a store, pleaded with the store clerks to stop them. When no one was willing to take the risk and chase after the thieves, the middle-aged woman decided she had to do something about it.

That’s when she told the clerk to “watch my purse.” The woman then found an adrenaline-fueled strength to run after the young men and jump on the hood of their car. (Note: this is probably not the wisest thing to do, but we all understand getting caught up in the moment.) Although she eventually fell off the car and sustained a black eye, the thieves were later caught by police.

Perhaps her words sum up how we should all respond to the injustices that are occurring around us with increasing frequency. Rather than standing around, hoping someone else will take responsibility, perhaps it’s time for us to rise up and say, “Enough.”

Watch my purse!

But There’s a Catch
I’m not suggesting that we jump on fleeing getaway cars. I’m not even suggesting that we take to the streets to protest or take drastic actions against those we believe are harming society.

But I am suggesting that we need to reach a place in our prayer lives when we say, “Watch my purse.” It’s a place of determining that we will not be complacent anymore. It is taking our rightful place by rising up and praying with great faith and belief that God wants to intervene in our families and in our nation.

But here’s the catch: To rise up means to humble ourselves, take a look at our own hearts, and pray with an attitude of repentance for our own sins and for the sins of the church. I know this is hard to accept. But if you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ, you are now responsible for the dire condition of a society where teenagers will brazenly steal liquor and heartlessly run down a bystander.

God has called His people to pray with abandonment for the sake of others. He states that the “healing of our land” depends our willingness to humble ourselves, acknowledge our desperate need for God, and seek God’s forgiveness for the way that we have lived our own lives (2 Chron. 7:14-15).

He does not call us to point accusing fingers at a band of lost and broken teenagers. Rather, He is calling us into accountability for the way that we have let society down through our own complacency. Our weak prayer lives. Our willingness to look the other way when people are acting out their need for God.

Watch my purse. I’m getting down on my knees to pray with greater hope, believing that God loves and wants to redeem and restore even a group of desperately needy teenagers. And just perhaps God will respond to our prayers with the greatest Christ-awakening our nation has ever known!