Serving
human needs are very important to God’s heart as Proverbs 19:17 says: He who
has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, and He will pay back what he has given.
Here is perhaps the clearest identification of God Himself with the plight of
the poor. The help they are given becomes God’s own debt to the giver. To help
the needy is so important to God, that He associates Himself with the poor by
taking their needs personally.
He promises
to repay those who care about the marginalized and show kindness to the poor.
Psalm 41:1-3 says: 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. Poor: that is, poor in health, the weak
and gaunt (Gen. 41:19). It is our obligation to shelter a homeless family, befriend a frightened stranger, visit a despondent prisoner, feed a
hungry child etc Christians are summoned to do these not only by words but in
deeds. The Lord Himself will repay us not necessarily with wealth and comfort,
but with the honor of reflecting His character by sacrifice we make on behalf
of the poor.
