Tag Archives: God’s heart for the poor

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Spitting In God’s Face

Contempt for the Creator

Synopsis: When we look without compassion at people trapped in a cycle of economic despair or act as if they deserve what they are getting due to their own poor financial management, we come dangerously close to spitting in God’s face: “Those who mock the poor show contempt for their maker.” (Prov 17:5) Scripture repeatedly warns that those attitudes have no place in Christ’s community. Rather, when we lift the downtrodden, bear each other’s burdens, strengthen the weak, and love the unlovely we’re literally doing it to Jesus. (Matt 25:40) Jesus himself said that the defining mark of his followers would be that they have a full-throttled love for 1) God, 2) one another, and 3) a hurting world. And guess what? Two out of three won’t cut it! Let’s help the hurting. Do it for Jesus … do it to Jesus!

Spitting in God's Face

Moments With God // Proverbs 17:5

He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

Contempt for the Creator—really?

Yep! That’s what Creator says in the Operator’s Manual he’s provided for us—the Bible. It says that when we look without compassion at those who are trapped in a cycle of economic despair or who have suddenly fallen into financial ruin, or act as if they deserve what they are getting due to their own poor financial management, we come dangerously close to spitting in the face of God.

In fact, there are an astounding number of places in the Bible warning us that those kinds of attitudes have no place in the community of Christ. Rather, we have been called to lift up the downtrodden, we are to bear one another’s burdens, and we are to strengthen the weak and love the unlovely. Not only that, but Jesus himself said that the defining mark of his followers would be that they have a full-throttled love, one, for God, two, for one another, and three, for a hurting world. And guess what? Two out of three doesn’t cut it here!

It is not that we have ignored the hurting, the fallen, or the poor entirely. We do a pretty good job of giving to disaster relief, sending our unused clothing to thrift stores, and donating canned goods to shelters. That’s not the problem; it’s the attitude with which we do it. You see, we engage the hurting but we don’t empathize with them very well. We open our wallets, just not our hearts. Yet the Bible tells us that God is on the side of the poor and the downcast. In fact, to ignore their needs or to judge them is to show contempt for God himself:

You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless; when you’re kind to the poor, you honor God. (Prov 14:31)

It’s criminal to ignore a neighbor in need, but compassion for the poor—what a blessing! (Prov 14:21)

Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full. (Prov 19:17)

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 25:40, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

So the bottom line is this: We had better guard our hearts and watch our attitudes very carefully when it comes to the poor and hurting. We, as individual believers and corporately as churches, need to develop a sensitive heart and a willing response. Compassion is the rightful domain of Christ’s community and we need to seriously up our game when it comes to care and involvement with the less fortunate.

Why is this such a big deal to God? Five reasons.

  1. God is on the side of the poor.
  2. Not to take their side too is inviting the judgment of God.
  3. Taking care of what God cares about invites God to take care of what you care about.
  4. Care and involvement with the poor will nourish your spirit and transform your own character
  5. Expressing God’s heart for those trapped in misfortune will exert the awesome, life-changing power to lift a person out of their despair—something that may never occur without your helping hand.

So, my friend, do you have God’s heart for the poor?

Take A Moment: In the Incarnation, Christ left his glory to enter into our poverty. We have been called to the same kind of incarnational living. So here’s the $64,000 question: What about your attitude, your schedule, and your activities need to change to fully, personally, and practically exude the Incarnation in your world?

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The $64,000 Question

Read: Proverbs 14:31

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.

There are a lot of ways that we bring glory and honor to God–by our praise, in our giving, through our purity–but one of the most undervalued and neglected ways that we delight the heart of the Father is when we serve the destitute and downtrodden among our brothers and sisters in the family of mankind. God has a special place in his heart for the poor, and when we reach out to them with sacrificial love and unconditional grace–as God did for us when he rescued us from our sin–he receives honor. Moreover, our kindness to the needy actually releases his kindness and his favor to us.

If you want to be blessed by God, just try caring for the poor. If you want to honor God with your life, trying getting involved with the poor. If you want to discover meaning and add value to what you might consider an otherwise dull life, open your heart, your hands, and your pocketbook to the poor. God cares for the poor, and when we care for the things God is concerned about, God will make sure that our concerns our cared for. But if we show contempt for them–by judging them, ignoring them, despising them, making light of them…what we might call benign oppression–we might as well be poking a finger in the eye of their Father.

Of course, there are poor among us because of their own foolishness, but from my vantage point as I write this blog from the very poor nation of Ethiopia, I have a sense that the overwhelming majority of the world’s poor are trapped in an endless generational cycle of poverty from which there is no escape without help from the outside. This is what I would call the poverty of the poor. (Proverbs 10:15) The tragedy for them is not just the lack of basic resources for life, it is a near genetic poverty that enslaves them from pre-birth throughout their lives until the day of their death.

But what joy when the Gospel of the Kingdom reaches their hearts, when the people of God who have been blessed open their hearts and their bank accounts to reveal the love of their Father in a tangible way, when those who “have” step out of their comfort and abundance to enter into the suffering of those who “have not”! Surely that’s what Jesus had in mind when asked for evidence that the Kingdom had come through him. Among the many obvious evidences he offered, arguably the most understated was that the Gospel had been preached to the poor. (Matthew 11:4-5)

So here’s the $64,000 question: Does your Good News–the Gospel of your life–somehow, in some way, some of the time lead you to care and involvement with the poor? If it doesn’t, you don’t preach a whole Gospel. If it does, your Father is smiling, because the fingerprints you leave behind both reveal and enhance his glory!

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
~II Corinthians 8:9

Your Assignment, Should You Choose To Accept It:

So what are you going to do about this business of care and involvement with the poor? It is not just about the occasional monetary donation or serving in a soup kitchen every decade or so. God wants you to make a lifestyle choice to greater care and involvement. It is time to make it happen!

Posted on

Contempt For The Creator

Read: Proverbs 17:5

He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.

Contempt for the Creator—really?

Yep!  That’s what the Creator says in the Operator’s Manual he’s provided for us—the Bible. It says that when we look at those who are trapped in a cycle of economic despair or who have suddenly fallen into financial ruin without compassion or act as if they deserve what they are getting due to their own poor financial management, we come dangerously close to spitting in the face of God.

In fact, there are an astounding number of places in the Bible warning us that those kinds of attitudes have no place in the community of Christ.  Rather, we have been called to lift up the downtrodden, we are to bear one another’s burdens, and we are to strengthen the weak and love the unlovely.  Not only that, but Jesus himself said that the defining mark of his followers would be that they have a full-throttled love, one, for God, two, for one another, and three, for a hurting world.  And guess what?  Two out of three don’t cut it here!

It’s not that we have ignored the hurting, the fallen, or the poor entirely. We do a pretty good job of giving to disaster relief, sending our unused clothing to thrift stores and donating canned goods to shelters.  That’s not the problem; it’s the attitude with which we do it.  You see, we engage the hurting but we don’t empathize with them very well.  We open our wallets, just not our hearts.

Yet the Bible tells us that God is on the side of the poor and the downcast.  And in fact, to ignore their needs or to judge them is to show contempt for God himself:

“You insult your Maker when you exploit the powerless; when you’re kind to the poor, you honor God.” ~Proverbs 14:31

“It’s criminal to ignore a neighbor in need, but compassion for the poor—what a blessing!” ~Proverbs 14:21

“Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full.” ~Proverbs 19:17

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 25:40, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Gojjo, by Scott Mitchell

So the bottom line is this:  We had better guard our hearts and watch our attitudes very carefully when it comes to the poor and hurting.  We, as individual believers and corporately as churches, need to develop a sensitive heart and a willing response. Compassion is the rightful domain of Christ’s community and we need to seriously up our game when it comes to care and involvement with the less fortunate.

Why is this such a big deal to God?  Five reasons.

One, God is on the side of the poor. (Psalm 140:12)

Two, not to join God on the side of the poor is to invite his judgment.

Three, taking care of what God cares about invites God to take care of what you care about.

Four, care and involvement with the poor will nourish your own spirit and transform your own character

And five, expressing God’s heart for those trapped in misfortune will exert the awesome, life-changing power to lift a person out of their despair—something that may never occur without your helping hand.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received and let us not
be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.
~Mother Teresa

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it:

In the Incarnation, Christ left his glory to enter into our poverty. We have been called to the same kind of incarnational living.  So here’s the $64,000 question:  What about your attitude, your schedule and your activities need to change to fully, personally and practically exude the Incarnation in your world?