Rescue the weak and needy

Psalms 82:3-4
“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
 maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
 Rescue the weak and the needy;
 deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

This is one thing Jesus came for - to rescue the weak and needy, and bring them home as God's children:


Hebrews 2:9-10
“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering."


Romans 9:25-26
 “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved. ’”
 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God. ’”

Surely if God calls someone to do something (like adoption) - will He not provide both the means to do it, and the ability to care for that child?  When we reach heaven, we will never regret having given ourselves for others in His name.

The place of abundance

Ps.66:10,12,20 - "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. ...we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. ... Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!"

This is our hope in trials: that our God will bring us out to a place of abundance!  And that no matter what  our circumstances seem to be, His ears are listening to our cries, and His steadfast love is upon us!

the furnace

Jn.6:13, "So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten."

This is our God. He multiplies little into abundant suffiscience when He is in it.

If you choose the hard path - like Larissa marrying brain-injured Ian, or someone adopting a disabled child - you are choosing for God to increase the heat in the furnace of your life, the means by which our gold is purified of its dross on the way to Heaven.

I know the end is good. I know that having dreams stripped away in order to gain the greater joy of God Himself, is not a loss, not a poor trade. Indeed he is a fool who cannot loose his grasp on all his possessions in order to gain that Pearl of great value instead. Only a fool gains the world at the cost of losing his soul.

My flesh still recoils.  It must be faith alone that willingly chooses the furnace, if God will be glorified in it.

Nothing too difficult for the LORD!

Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

For nothing will be impossible with God.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

(Jeremiah 32:27. Luke 1:37. Matthew 7:7-11. Luke 11:13. Romans 8:26-32)

Always giving thanks

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

"Open your mouth, and I will fill it!"

Psalm 81

God says to Israel - and to us -
"Come to me. Serve me only. I will satisfy your deepest needs with myself. Ask for what you need. Depend on me for it. And I will provide!"

But we choose to go our own way, to hold to our sin, to think that serving God is a slavery and that  serving ourselves will be freedom.

How backwards our sin-corrupted natures perceive reality! For in truth it is God who frees us from our slavery, who gives us in its place his own sweet service, where we find him meeting every need, abundantly!

If God is for me...

Genesis 37 - Joseph is sold into Egypt, presumed dead by Jacob.  Jacob would perceive that "all these things are against me" (Gen.42:36). In reality, God was preparing for him a feast in the wilderness, a treasure only possible through a long incubation period of time.  God was for him, so nothing could truly be against him.

Can we not trust the God who orchestrated Jacob's and Joseph's lives, to orchestrate ours also? If I am His, then He is for me, and He turns everything that would be against me into something that is for me (Rom.8:31). Trust God in the dark, when you cannot see His hand, when you do not understand. He will not let you go. He is using your trial to make something beautiful.