Poor: June 2, 2010

Today's Word for Wednesday June 2, 2010

POOR

DEFINITION

Needy; lacking desirable qualities; inferior; spiritless; unfortunate; humble.

SCRIPTURE

"They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing that I was also eager to do." Galatians 2:10

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
Paul was writing to the people in the church at Galatia to correct false teaching that had gotten into the church after he had left. He referred to James, Peter, Cephas and John, who were the leaders or "the pillars" of the Church in Jerusalem to have given approval of his teaching to the Gentiles, and verified that he spoke the true gospel. They also were the ones that challenged Paul to remember the poor.

We often wonder why God allows so many of His children to be poor. We have traveled to so many parts of our world and it seems that every place we go we are overwhelmed with the poverty that is in our world. The poverty we have seen in the Philippines where 100,000 people, over half of these are children, live on top of a huge garbage dump and in the slum cities close to Nairobi east Africa has moved us to tears. In these situations we ask - why these people and - Why are we so blessed here in America.

When God created Adam and Eve He placed them in a perfect place, the Garden of Eden where they lacked nothing. They let sin enter their hearts by desiring something more. From that time on, man has had to work and provide for himself. Everything in this world belongs to God; however, because God did not make us puppets He has given us a free will to do as we choose while in this world.

The suffering we see in this world is of man's own doing. If the whole world would repent of their sins and turn to God, He might choose to once again see that no one lacked all they needed. He could make us all rich, but God has not chosen to do that for some. One reason He does not is that because riches tend to make people feel they do not need God so they turn away from God.

There is no necessity that people need to be poor but He must have His reasons. He allows the poor to suffer but why? There are many possible reasons but one comes to mind. Possibly He allows there to be poor so that we that are favored by God with blessings have an opportunity to show our love to Jesus by ministering to and helping the poor.

We show our love to Christ by singing songs of praise to Him. We show our love to Christ by praying to Him. But if there were no people in need we would lose the privilege that God gives us to help through our words and deeds. If we truly love Christ then we need to care for those who are loved by Him. Those that are dear to Him need to be dear to us and we need to remember that it is a privilege, not an obligation to help the poor that Jesus loves just as much as He loves us.

Remember the words of Jesus when He said, "In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." When we look at what we do in this perspective, it should challenge us to have a strong desire to not only help others, but to do it with a willing hand and with a joyful and loving heart. Let us assure you that IT HAS BEEN A PRIVILEGE FOR US!

Through the ages Christian Churches have done the most to help the poor. When raising our children we taught them the importance of tithing and to give of their time to help the poor. Concerning tithing, they understood that a tenth of whatever money they received belonged to the Lord. And they also understood the importance of a percentage of their time be given to volunteer service to the Lord. We as parents led by example and in our case we have been led of God to give all of our time to help the poor who are hurting both physically and spiritually

LEARNING

Our memory verse for this week is found in James 4:17.

Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

PRAYER

Challenge me this day to do more to reach out and help the poor that touch my life. Give me a new burden to love as You have loved. May the hearts of each member of my family be challenged to honor those that You love who have so little. Help us to remember that You love all people equally and so should we do the same.