“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives or fall among the slain. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised”
Have you noticed that in the society in which we live, family name, riches, and position in society affect what one has access to? A man who appears in an office in very simple clothes compared to someone who comes in expensive clothes and drives a car will always be given very different services. It is unfortunate that this is the same thing in the church, whereas, the church should know better to demonstrate the love of Christ. No wonder the bible says in Isaiah 53: 3 “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” Jesus was despised and rejected because he did not show up in any form of beauty, yet he carried the glory of God. Isaiah 10 above says woe on to those who are unjust to the poor. Sometimes people don’t really think such a scripture exists, because if one has and they refuse to give to the poor, why get punished? Is it not a choice to give?
Interestingly, Jesus told the rich man to go sell all he had and give to the poor. He did not say some, but all. Luke 12:33-34 “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” This means we must not hold anything of this world dear to us except Christ and him alone. If he says give it up, we should do so without hinderance because it means nothing.
1. For any man to have the heart to do something for God without complaints in their heart, the love of God must have consumed every aspect of their heart. Pray that God’s love will consume our hearts: Hosea 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
2. Pray that God will arise and deliver the poor in the land: Psalm 12:5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
3. The poor will always be in our midst (Matthew 26:11)and it’s the expectation of God that we take care of them. It is an honor to God when we give to the poor. Pray that God will grant us the grace to not oppose the poor, but to be generous to them: Proverbs 14:31 “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.”
4. Pray that this bible verse will never be our portion and that we will be givers to the poor: Isaiah 5:8 “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.”
5. Pray for the spirit of giving to be our portion, just like God gave to us all that he had, no conditions attached: Acts 20:35 “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
6. Sometimes people will say they have given, but when compared to what they have, they have really given nothing. There are so many needy people in our midst, community, neighborhood, family etc: Pray for an open hand in our giving: Deuteronomy 15:7-8 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be”.
7. Christians specifically have the tendency of mixing physical and spiritual things. Sometimes a person needs just a bag of chicken from your fridge and not prayer at that time. The bag of chicken is the answered prayer through you, but you spend time trying to pray as if God should go to another person. This is selfishness and self-centeredness. Pray that you will not close your heart, mind, and soul, but that you will be open to see and bless those who come to you in need: 1 John 3:17-18 “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
8. Pray that the love of God will compel our hearts to love and give like Jesus. Jesus did it for us all and presented the example of a selfless life. We cannot afford to live for us, but only for Christ: 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 “14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
9. Pray that the presence of God will bring peace upon the poor. Pray that God’s presence will vindicate the poor and their children in our midst, as well as judge those who have oppressed them: Psalm 72: 3-4 “3 May the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills bring righteousness. 4May he vindicate the afflicted among the people; may he save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.”
10. We have not practiced this bible verse. Pray that God will help us take care of such a population in our midst: James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
11. To share what you have does not mean you have more than what you need. The principle of giving is not based on the amount we have, but on the heart that gives out of what we have: Hebrews 13:16 “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
12. There is a blessing in giving to the poor. Pray that you will not miss it. It is a way to win souls. When you give, God causes the spirit of Jesus within you to shine in the darkness: Isaiah 58:10”If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday”.
13. Pray that God will grant you the grace to be a giver; there are so many ways to give. Ask the Lord to show you where to give. Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you”.
14. Finally, as we pray and fast, we should be asking God to help us give something we have never given before; it may be time, money, material etc. 2 Corinthians 7:9 “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?