Day 15: Pandita Ramabai - “Compelled By Love”
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”
Introduction
What happens when someone encounters the love of God? When someone accepts Christ, what changes? Needless to say, one does not remain the same after receiving God’s love.
For Pandita Ramabai, the love of God that saved her also deeply moved her heart to share it. Compelled by His grace, despite the hardships and sacrifices, she gave herself utterly to the Lord to share the gospel. She saw how Christ opened His arms toward sinners and the neglected. She couldn’t sit still.
Compelled By Love
Ramabai came from a prominent family in India but learned suffering early in life. A great famine devastated her and her family. By her early twenties, she lost both her parents and later her husband, leaving her a young widow with a daughter. Years later, in the midst of grief and loss, she encountered Christ. She had nothing to offer God. Yet, He received her with compassion. Ramabai was never the same.
Moved to help other women cast aside by society, Ramabai founded the Mukti Mission. Ramabai and her workers rescued thousands of women and girls from starvation and abandonment. The organization also provided education and training for various trades, such as printing and farming. Most prominently, Ramabai translated the Bible into Marathi (a major Indian language) so that other women could encounter the love of Christ and believe in Him. This was her ultimate goal. God’s love led her to meet others’ needs and share the gospel with them.
Reflection
If we have experienced the love of Christ, how has our heart changed? Not just in our personal relationship with God, but in how we treat others? As Scripture says, does the “love of Christ control us” (2 Cor. 5:14)? Let’s ask God to remind us of His saving love, that we too may be compelled to share Christ and love others like Ramabai.