Engagement… not avoidance

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Psalm 9:18

God sees injustice and will not let it stand. Humans might inflict horrible lack of concern on each other. Deliberate acts of hatred, retribution, and economic abuse plague human history. But God has not forgotten this. God knows the evil we do to one another. And He will not let it go unpunished.

God has a way of sovereignty responding to this through history itself. Peasant uprisings, strikes, wars, revolutions, civil disobedience, and legislative corrections are all tools in the hands of a sovereign God to correct all sorts of ways in which the needy were forgotten and the poor left without care. And I am confident when there is attention brought to these issues today that a sovereign God sees it and will similarly work by His providential hand to end an action that offends His mercy and grace.

Christians should care that the needy are forgotten. We should WANT to see God put an end to the suffering of homelessness, poverty, hunger, racism, education disadvantages, and lack of economic opportunity. We should get involved in ways to deal with these. We know it isn’t solved by giveaways, but instead by the sharing of our lives, our resources, God’s wisdom, practical knowledge, skills sets and in the recognizing of the image of God in every hurting human being by giving them the gospel both in word and in our loving help to them.

We remember that Jesus told us that all those in His kingdom who will impoverish themselves spiritually will be blessed. We recognize that sin makes us all needy, unable to pay the price for our lives before a holy God, and completely spiritually bankrupt. But Christ gave Himself to give to us all the riches of life in Him! And though Jesus knows we will always have the poor with us, He doesn’t call us to ignore their need, but instead to help whenever and wherever possible. The gospel saves our souls. The love of Christ that rejects injustice helps better our world for God’s glory!