JUNE 16, 2014
The
World’s Children
Read: James 1:22–2:1
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. —James 1:27
After a group of high schoolers visited an
orphanage during a ministry trip, one student was visibly upset. When asked
why, he said it reminded him of his own situation 10 years earlier.
This young man had been living in an orphanage
in another country. He said he recalled people coming to visit him and his
friends—just as these students were doing—and then going away. Occasionally
someone would come back and adopt a child. But each time he was left behind he
would wonder, What’s wrong with me?
When the teenagers would visit an orphanage—and
then leave—those old feelings came back to him. So the others in the group
prayed for him—and thanked God that one day a woman (his new mother) showed up
and chose him as her very own son. It was a celebration of an act of love that
gave one boy hope.
Across the world are children who need to know
of God’s love for them (Matt. 18:4-5; Mark 10:13-16; James 1:27). Clearly, we
can’t all adopt or visit these children—and indeed we are not expected to. But
we can all do something: Support. Encourage. Teach. Pray. When we love the
world’s children, we honor our Father who adopted us into His family (Gal.
4:4-7).
Father,
You made each child in Your
image.
Help us to convey Your love
to them
with our hands, our help,
and our
hearts.
The more
Christ’s love grows in us, the more His love flows from us.
Insight
James
emphasizes not only learning the Word of God but putting it into action. The
Word is like a mirror that shows us where we are making spiritual progress and
where we need improvement: “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty
and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this
one will be blessed in what he does” (v.25). The scriptures clearly give us set
boundaries, but it is obedience that brings us a sense of liberty and blessing.
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
