Walk Of Life – Day 21 – February 2022 – Thoughts From The Book Of Proverbs – Love!
Love to help the poor
Proverbs 21: 13 “Whose stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”
There are many people around us who believe in and practice the above verse, not knowing that it is the word of the living God. They practice this by giving alms to the poor at various places and on different occasions. They believe that by giving alms to the poor, they will either receive double amount from God, or will get their requests or desires granted by God.
If we think that the above verse is the same as what the world is practicing, then we are wrong. For love plays a vital role in every deed that a believer does. According to Luke 6:35-36 we are instructed to love, do good, lend our enemies, expecting nothing in return. When our help is just to receive help back either from the receiver directly or from some other channel, then it is not the help that a believer has to do. It is just a duty being performed, just like how we work for the entire month for others and we receive a salary at the end.
As a child of God, to love to help should be our nature, not a command. Have you been limiting yourself in loving the poor by giving money or material as alms? Having a heart to do such is appreciable. However, there is much more that we can do with the love of God that resides in us as His children.
Let us take one step ahead on this journey. Let us add love to our deeds. Even though the dictionary meaning of poor relates to lack of money, as the child of God we consider it in different angles. There could be people who are deprived of peace, deprived of joy, deprived of many such things that not everybody could share easily. As a child of God, have you see such people around you? Have you attended them in their need?
We cannot deny saying everyone is good, because there are many who go through a lot within, but happen to appear good outwardly. They could even be your very own family, but we seem unaware. Why is it so? It is not that we are not willing to help, but it is because we do not have the capacity to help. Most of the time we keep burdening ourselves with our own cares and concerns, we are stuffed with our own problems, that we find it tough to take others’ concerns to carry. There is a simple solution for this in 1 Peter 5:7, take all your cares to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer and submit them to Him. He cares for you. You cannot help others in prayers by carrying their burden, until and unless you empty yourself.
How can we help these people after emptying ourselves? Though praying is the first action, we cannot say that it is enough. We need to do things that require you to exhibit your love in deeds (1 John 3:18). Talk to the people and know what their trouble is. Help them by introducing the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, (Isaiah 9:6) who is in you to them, for He gives His peace to us which is quite different from the peace that the world gives (John 14:27). Do not hold yourself back in helping others, pray for the nature of Christ to reside in you.
Remember the verse 1 Corinthians 13:2 which says that if we do not have love, we have nothing. Learn to love when you help.
