Thoughts for another day

October 26, 2006

Today's verse: Dt. 15:11. For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. (KJV)

There are many thoughts that come to my mind when someone questions me about things in the world that are not right. One of the worst is poverty. When questioned, ‘why there is poverty?’ the answer I grope for is not entirely convincing when I speak to the secular world, which is, ‘the rich because they are rich and have the power, grab all the wealth, leaving nothing for the poor thereby creating poverty’. Some of the self-proclaimed thinkers say that those who don’t work hard become poor. In corollary, those who work hardest must be the richest. But then, is it that way?

When it comes to the spiritual, I keep asking myself, ‘Did God really want that His super creation be poor? Is He a God who on one side makes some rich and some poor? What is the yardstick He uses to make one rich and another poor. And this is pretty pertinent when you consider that some of the most wicked people are rich. Intriguing, no? Of course, God Almighty the giver of all riches and power must certainly have the answers and His Word, when read in completeness provides glimpses of why there is poverty. The chief reason is because we do not give, not so much that we grab. Time after time His Word says, ‘GIVE, GIVE, GIVE.’ Do we give? Not to my relative, but the completely unknown who can never return us the favor!

My friend, when God created us, He meant us to be rich. His Kingdom has no want. Do you know that vegetation grew of its own accord, till God cursed the ground and said that man must toil to eat bread (Gen. 3:17,18). In that instant man became poor. Therefore, God says in today’s verse the poor shall never cease and Jesus echoed that in Jn. 12:8.

The question is, what’s your answer to today’s verse? Are you going to look on when that little child on the street is begging so a small morsel of food might enter her stomach? Does your child need to beg to eat breakfast? Begging, so that she can avoid the thrashing her mother will give her when she returns empty handed. Look at the pain in the eyes of the poor my beloved in Christ. If we think that the little charity we do (more because of our guilty consciences than anything else) will help, we are sadly mistaken. I can hear Him tell me: What face will you come with, to stake your claim for that room in My mansion if you have not fed the poor and clothed the unclothed? Don’t you know that the rich man suffered hell because he did not reach out to Lazarus?