Blessed is he who considers the poor; the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; you will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; you will sustain him on his sickbed. Psalm 41: 1-3, NKJV.
Gracious God, as we approach Your Throne of Grace, we ask that You will show us the way we ought to go, and give us a renewed vision of what You expect of us as we live in this world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Today, as we deal with the topic of the poor, we are reminded that poverty has many faces; some that are related, and some that are not. Our desire is that the Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts, and enlighten us, regarding the poor that are among us. We pray that He will also give us the wisdom, the love, and, the willingness, to deal with poverty, no matter what form it takes. Jesus’ Words, “you have the poor always with you” (John 12: 8), were spoken to His disciples. Under the instigation of Judas, they were complaining, because Mary Magdalene, had anointed Jesus with a pound of the very costly spikenard ointment, from her alabaster box. Even though I believe Jesus was speaking of those who are poor in this world’s goods, we believe that His statement can apply to other situations of poverty as well.
“The Poor In Spirit” (Matthew 5: 3). When Jesus spoke to the multitudes upon the hill that day, many centuries ago, He began, by pronouncing a blessing; or declaring, that the “poor in spirit” would find “happiness.” But just what does it mean to be poor in spirit? According to Clarke’s Commentary, it refers to “One who is deeply sensible of his [her] spiritual poverty and wretchedness” (65). There does not seem to be many who fall into this category in our day. Even those who claim to be humble, are “proud to be humble!” Quite an oxymoron, wouldn’t you say? As Christians, we seem to take pride in the mere fact that we are Christians, rather than to be grateful that Jesus has saved us, in spite, of our unworthiness. Many Christians in our day, wear our Christianity as a badge which sets us apart as a distinguished group, who deserve to be saved. May God help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, who stepped down from being equal with the Father, and became a servant. “The Lion of the tribe of Judah,” became “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
The Poor in Self-Esteem (Luke 7: 36-39). Most of us, if not all, have heard about the story of Mary Magdalene. She anointed the head, of Jesus, and kissed His feet, and washed them with her tears. She dried them with her hair, before anointing them, with her very costly ointment. From the attitude of the host of this feast (39) it is obvious that she was probably not among those who were invited to the feast. Or, perhaps, because her two siblings were present at the feast (John 12: 2), she was allowed to accompany them. One thing is very obvious, she does not feel very good about herself. The Scripture informs us that when she approached Jesus, she “stood at His feet behind Him, weeping” (38). It is obvious that she did not want to be seen, so she came from behind him. She did not consider herself worthy; but her love and gratitude to Jesus were so great (47), that she could do no less! What is of greatest encouragement, is the fact that Jesus does not see us the way human beings see us. He looks at our hearts! My prayer is that God will give us sanctified eyes; eyes that have been anointed with spiritual “eye salve,” that we might recognize the poor in self-esteem among us, and minister unto them.
The Poor in This World’s Goods (Mark 12: 42-44). I have left the obvious poor for the last. I would like to share with you some information on poverty. I am not not sure how credible this data is, but let us take a look at it.
“The most common measure of poverty in the United States is the “poverty line” set by the U.S. government. This measure recognizes poverty as a lack of those goods and services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society. The official threshold is adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index. Poverty in the United States is cyclical in nature with roughly 12% to 17% living below the federal poverty line at any given point in time, and roughly 40% falling below the poverty line at some point within a 10 year time span. Most Americans (58.5%) will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75. There remains some controversy over whether the official poverty threshold over- or understates poverty.
In general the United States has some of the highest relative poverty rates among industrialized countries, reflecting both the high median income and high degree of inequality” (Wikipedia).
This is the condition of the poor, in the United States of America, alone. Each of us know where we stand in our treatment of the poor. May God give us bowels of mercy, as we deal with them. One day, we will give an account to God for what we did, or did not do, for the poor.