Look Unto Me Devotional

Remember the poor.
Galatians 2:10

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Why does God allow so many of His children to be poor? He could make all of them rich if He so desired by placing bags of gold at their doors or by simply providing them with a large annual income. He could continually spread abundant provisions around their houses just as He once provided for the Israelites and "brought them quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven" (Ps. 105:40).

There is no reason for His children to be poor except that He sees it as best for them. "The cattle on a thousand hills" (Ps. 50:10) are His, and He could provide for His children. He could even cause the richest and most powerful people on earth to give all their wealth and power to them, for the hearts of all people are in His control. However, He does not choose to do so but allows them to be in need, suffering poverty and obscurity.

Why is this? Actually there are many reasons, but the primary one is to give us who have been blessed with so many material blessings the opportunity of showing our love for Jesus by ministering to His poorer brothers and sisters. Yes, we show our love for Christ when we sing praises and pray to Him, but if none of His children were in need, we would lose one of our sweetest privileges and one of the best ways of publicly revealing our love for Him.

God has ordained we should prove our love for Him "not ... with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18). If we truly love Christ we will care for those He loves, and those who are precious to Him will be precious to us as well. May we then look upon it not as a duty but as a privilege to be used to ease the needs of the poor of the Lord's flock, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matt. 25:40).

Surely just knowing this sweet truth should be a strong enough motive to lead us to help our brothers and sisters in Christ with a willing hand and a loving heart-remembering that everything we do for His people is graciously accepted by Christ as having been done for Him.

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

The words of Jesus, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me," is a reflection of this Old Testament truth: "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done" (Prov. 19:17). Throughout the Scriptures, especially in Proverbs, we are admonished to remember the poor. In fact, one of the character traits of the "Proverbs 31 Woman" is that "she opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy" (Prov. 31:20).

In the New Testament as well we see the early church involved in meeting the needs of the poor. As the church leaders made the decision of who would preach to the Gentiles, and who would go to the Jews, Paul said, "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do" (Gal. 2:10). Yet the spirit in which I "remember the poor" is critical, for as Paul also said, "If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3).

http://www.lookuntome.com/