Walk Of Life – Day 21, October 2021 – Thoughts From The Book Of Proverbs – Opt For!
Opt to Open your ears to the cry of the poor
Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor Will also cry himself and not be heard. – Proverbs 21:13
How many instances we have shut our ears to the cry of the poor! May be while we are traveling or while we are at home there are many people who cry to us or who gets our attention. How many times we have cared for them or we have reached out to them.
How did Jesus respond to the voice of the blind man who cried out aloud standing in the streets. Jesus could have easily avoided him as he is being already helping many people around Him. Above all the disciples were warning the blind man to remain silent. Inspite of that when he raised his voice and cried for help saying “Jesus of Nazareth, Have mercy on me” Jesus Christ came to him and healed his blindness. Did the exact help of what he wanted.
Proverbs 21:13 says, “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor, will himself call out and not be answered.” This proverb makes clear that God cares about the poor and God calls us to care for the poor, to listen to the cry of the poor, to respond to the cry of the poor. And God going so far here as to say, “When you close your ear to the cry of the poor, then I will close my ear to you”.
And the process of closing my eyes and ears to the poor, God is saying in this proverb, “You will call out yourself and not be answered”. It’s not always money that others need. It may be your time, or food or clothing. It may be the cry from the perishing soul. Are you walking around with your eyes and ears shut to the cry. There are lots and lots living around us without any hope and are desperately crying for rescue. Today’s verse is very harsh which says if we shut our ears to the cry of the poor our cry to the Lord will not be heard. Let us opt to open our ears to the cry of the poor.
And so God, we pray today that you would help us to open our ears to the cry of the poor. Help us to see the poor around us. Help us to hear the cries of the poor around us. And help us to respond to the cries of the poor around us. Help us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Help us to use the resources that you have entrusted to us for the good, not just to our own lives but people around us, particularly the poor around us. Help us to care for the poor, we pray, like you care for the poor. Oh God, may this be so. Yes. Yes, in the sense because we want you to hear our cries. But, oh God, we want our lives to be a reflection of your love for the poor, of your attentiveness to the poor, of your care for those who are poor. So God, may it be so in us. Keep us, we pray. Keep us from closing our ears to the cry of the poor today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
