AUGUST 10, 2015
I’ve Come to
Help
Read:
James
1:19-27
Be
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. — James 1:22
Reporter Jacob Riis’s vivid descriptions of poverty in
19th-century New York City horrified a generally complacent public. His book
How the Other Half Lives combined his writing with his own photographs to paint
a picture so vivid that the public could not escape the certainty of poverty’s
desperate existence. The third of fifteen children himself, Riis wrote so effectively
because he had lived in that world of terrible despair.
Shortly after the
release of his book, he received a card from a young man just beginning his
political career. The note read simply, “I have read your book, and I have come
to help. Theodore Roosevelt.” (This politician later became a US President.)
True faith
responds to the needs of others, according to James (1:19-27). May our hearts
be moved from inaction to action, from words alone to deeds that back them up. Compassionate
action not only aids those mired in life’s difficulties, but it may also make
them open to the greater message from our Savior who sees their need and can do
so much more for them.
O Lord, it is so easy to be overwhelmed, or to judge and therefore
to refrain from helping others. Lift our eyes above our own thoughts and
circumstances, and let us care as You care.
Others
will know what the words “God is love” mean when they see it in our lives.
INSIGHT:
James’s letter was
written to people enduring difficult times. In James 1:1 we read, “James, a
bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are
scattered abroad: Greetings.” The “twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” were
Jewish followers of Christ who had been driven from their homes in Jerusalem by
persecution. Many of them had lost everything because of their faith in Christ,
and they were struggling. Perhaps that is why James spoke so passionately about
caring for orphans and widows (1:27) and the poor (ch.2). Because the believers
had suffered so much themselves, they should have understood the importance of
responding to the needs of others. Bill Crowder
Source: Our Daily Bread 2015