Today Daily Devotional

She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

— Proverbs 31:20

I once worked with a team of volunteers building a water system in a community in Honduras. The terrain was rocky, the climate was dry, and clean water was scarce. Women and girls in this area spent huge amounts of time and energy hauling water over great distances for cooking and drinking. Having a water system would make life easier and lead to better health.

Early one morning we encountered Georgina, a woman from a neighboring village who had heard about the water project. She was on fire, a force of nature! Insistently, passionately, barely pausing for breath, she told us about her community and how their well had dried up. She had been praying fervently for water, she said, and now she believed God was answering her prayers by leading her to us. Her conviction and energy were impressive. There was no way she would take no for an answer. That day we visited her village and explained that getting water involved a lengthy and challenging process. Nothing fazed Georgina, though—and, sure enough, God answered her prayers. A year later, she and her neighbors had fresh water on tap.

It is sometimes said that it takes a village to raise a child. It could also be said that it takes a woman, like Georgina, to raise a village.

Lord, thank you for people like Georgina who trust you profoundly and serve their communities with great energy. Bless women everywhere who overcome great odds to build up their communities in Christ. Amen.

“Today salvation has come to this house. . . .”

— Luke 19:9

Zacchaeus was a needy man. He had also been greedy, growing rich as a tax collector who could pocket the extra fees he charged. As a result, his neighbors despised him. But it seems that he wanted to change. So he threw out his dignity and scrambled up a tree to see Jesus.

More importantly, Jesus saw Zacchaeus and said, “I must stay at your house today.” We aren’t told what else Jesus might have said in their brief exchange. But the outcome was that Zacchaeus repented and promised to give half of his possessions to the poor and to pay back four times what he had cheated anyone. What an amazing display of generosity! Imagine that!

What if every one of us who has extra money in our pocket were to give like that to help people in need? What might that accomplish for the poor of the world? How many wells, new schools, and health clinics could we provide?

It may seem that Zacchaeus was just bubbling over with enthusiasm. But he was actually pledging to obey God’s laws about economic justice (see Exodus 22; Leviticus 6). So he was not just being generous—he was being faithful and obedient. That’s why Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house.”

This is ultimately a story of great joy: a lost sinner is found, the poor are well served, and Jesus has a new disciple.

Lord, when I seek you sincerely, I find you seeking me. Make me faithful, serving you in the joy of salvation. Amen.

“Between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.”

— Luke 16:26

Jesus taught his followers many things about the kingdom of God. Care for the poor was high on his agenda, as we see in his parable about the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus, a poor man, was covered with sores and was hungry. He lay outside the gate of a wealthy man who lived in luxury. But he was ignored, and his needs went unmet.

When the poor man died, he was taken to rest with Abra­ham, where he finally was comforted. And when the rich man died, he was consigned to Hades, where he was in torment. He pleaded for relief and begged for a warning to be sent to his brothers. Abraham explained that there was an impassable gap between them, and that the man’s brothers already had all the instructions they needed.

The gap is the result of ignoring God’s teachings about neighbor love and justice for the poor. These teachings are plentiful in the Bible, reminding us that God loves the poor, demands justice for them, and “upholds the cause of the needy” (Psalm 140:12).

Today about 780 million people live in poverty and suffer from hunger, disease, and vulnerability. The reasons are often complex, but the reality is simple: there is great need. God’s Word still reminds us of his special care for the poor. And we have the example of Jesus to follow as we love our neighbors.

God, help us to care about the needs of the poor, as you do. Guide to show your love in Jesus’ name. Amen.

“He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”

— Luke 4:18

As a teacher, I have often asked my students, “Why was Jesus born?” Invariably they answer by leap-frogging over his life to his death: “Jesus was born to die so that we can be saved and one day enter heaven.” And these students are often surprised when I suggest that this answer, which is correct, is also incomplete and misses a lot of good news. Jesus, I explain to them, was actually born not only to die but to live! He was born to take on the mission of bringing the kingdom of God into this world. This kingdom is marked by love for God and neighbor, justice, peace, joy, and the ­restoration of shalom.

In Luke 4 Jesus describes what it meant to be the Messiah (the “Anointed One”). Anointed by the Spirit, he had come to announce the presence of the kingdom of God, to speak good news to the poor, to announce freedom for the captives, release for the oppressed, and the year of the Lord’s ­favor, a year of Jubilee. That was his mission.

It is important to accept the gift of Jesus’ offering his life for our salvation. And it is equally important to marvel at his life and to ask the Holy Spirit to anoint us too—so that we can follow him in his mission of justice and mercy.

God of grace, thank you for the gift of Jesus and the life he lived to show us the way of the kingdom of God. In his name, Amen.

“Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”

— Leviticus 25:10

As we noted yesterday, God’s gifts of daily bread and Sabbath invited everyone to trust in him. And God poured out abundant blessings to be shared. All of this was designed to prevent poverty. Leviticus 25 explains more about debts being forgiven, freedom for slaves, and property being restored to owners who had sold it to pay off debts. These laws reveal God’s concern for social relationships and the well-­being of the community.

Imagine what it was like for people who had lost their land, or who had labored under a burden of debt, to suddenly be able to start again with a clean slate. Millions of people in ­poverty today long for a fresh beginning like that.

As the year 2000 approached, Christians around the world proposed a kind of modern Jubilee for low-income countries that had been burdened with crippling debt for decades. The proposals were bold and countercultural, but by God’s grace they had a measure of success. Some of the world’s poorest nations were forgiven parts of their debt. And money was freed up to build education and health-care programs.

Early in his ministry, Jesus explained that he was anointed “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” a Jubilee—and, more than that, to fulfill that vision (Luke 4:18-19). In Jesus, we all get a chance to start over.

Lord God, your love and care for us make us long for a more just world, where new beginnings are possible. Guide us, we pray. Amen.

Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

— Exodus 16:18

There’s an old saying: “You can take a boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Likewise for the people of Israel, it seemed. Though they were now freed from slavery, they complained of being hungry in the desert. They grumbled that at least they had plenty of food back in Egypt.

And how did God respond? In his mercy, God provided the gift of daily bread. This was a lesson in providence to teach the people that they could trust God to care for them. God even invited them to trust him enough so that they could take a weekly day off. The Sabbath was a day to set aside toil and labor and to turn one’s mind to rest, worship, and community.

Sabbath-keeping became the basis for a whole new way of thinking about life. The pattern of a weekly day of rest later expanded to include a Sabbath year every seven years, when the land could also take a rest and debts could be forgiven. Then Sabbath years were extended so that after seven times seven (49) years there would also be a Year of Jubilee, when slaves were released, debts were forgiven, and land was returned to its original owners (Leviticus 25). These practices were meant to protect people from poverty and to show other nations that God’s people could depend on him. It all has to do with trusting God and living God’s way.

God of abundance, you still provide our daily bread. Receive our thanks and teach us and others that we can trust in you. Amen.

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out . . . to God. God heard their groaning and . . . was concerned about them.

— Exodus 2:23-25

The Israelites were the Old Testament people of God, chosen to become a nation through whom God would bless all other peoples (see Genesis 12:1-3). But, as we can see in the opening chapters of Exodus, God’s chosen people were in a bad way. The people of Israel had become slaves in Egypt. And in this way, they were not able to be the blessing to others that God had promised.

The king of Egypt feared the Israelites because their numbers were a potential threat to his domain. So he made life unbearable for them until the people cried out in their slavery and suffering. Some of the deepest weeping happened because many baby boys were murdered. What trauma and hopelessness!

But finally, after seeming to be absent for a long time, God heard the people’s groaning and acted to bring them freedom. It wouldn’t be easy or quick, but it would be decisive and provide rescue for God’s suffering people.

And isn’t it startling, as we find in the next chapter, that while God was moved to help the oppressed, his first move was to call a human being, Moses, to be the agent of his liberating power?

Dear God, see and hear the groaning of people who suffer everywhere in this world. Be concerned, righteous God, and move us to be faithful to your call to act in your name. Amen!

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

— Luke 6:20

God’s concern for the poor is written all over the pages of Scripture. Nearly 500 verses in the Bible express God’s concern for the needy and God’s desire to act on their behalf.

But who are the poor? They are varied, and the Bible has many different words to describe them. Some people are poor because they have no money or wealth. Some are simply dependent on others. Some are poor by choice. Some are poor because of misfortune, and some are poor because of poor decisions they made. Most commonly, the poor are those who are oppressed, suffering not only material poverty but also social poverty from lack of power and opportunity. They are poor, vulnerable, and weak.

God cares for them all. The Bible teaches that God has concern not just for people who are materially poor but also for those who are put down, oppressed, marginalized, shunned, denied opportunity, and overlooked. Again and again the Bible reveals the God who shows the poor his “tender mercies,” offering himself in promises of protection and provision.

Followers of Jesus are called to imitate God’s compassion, care, and mercy, lovingly assisting the poor in whatever ways are required, whether it means helping individuals, revitalizing communities, or working to create a more just and sustainable world.

Jesus, you blessed the poor with your words and your love. Teach us to do the same. Amen.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. . . .

— Genesis 1:31

The good, perfect, and loving Creator made an amazingly good world. The great song of creation in Genesis 1 closes with this resounding affirmation: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” The star-studded heavens, the warming sun and glistening moon, the lush forests and the underlying biosphere, the sea teeming with marine life, and the air humming with birds—all of it was good. And human­kind, bearing God’s image, empowered to care for God’s good earth, was also good. It was all very good.

An important word that we will consider often this month is shalom. This Hebrew word, often translated as “peace,” means much more than that. While “peace” often refers mainly to an absence of conflict, shalom suggests the presence of goodness, flourishing, right relationships, and all things being as God created them to be. Shalom points to all things living in line with their character so that they can fully achieve God’s intentions for them.

Living in right relationship is essential for human flourishing—right relationship with God, with others, with self, and with God’s creation. That’s what God intended. Yet because of human sin and rebellion, those relations are twisted and spoiled. Poverty and all its limitations are the result of relationships gone wrong. Even so, God’s great work of love is to free us and his creation from the bondage of sin and to restore shalom.

God, thank you for loving us enough to restore us and make all things new. In Jesus, Amen.

God created mankind in his own image. . . . God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. . . .”

— Genesis 1:27

Good news begins right at the beginning. The good news found at the beginning of things in Genesis 1 is that there is a God who makes and upholds all that there is, and that we humans are made in the image of this amazing God.

We don’t look like God, of course, for God is Spirit—but this means, among other things, that we are God’s representatives. We are called to take care of all that God has made—and not just the creatures mentioned in these ­verses, but also the unfolding of all human history that follows, in all its complexity.

Amazing! Mere mortals are endowed with the dignity and honor of representing the infinite God, acting on God’s behalf to care for his creation with all its potential. We are God’s agents with a most prestigious job description. And this leads us, with joy and gratitude, to a profound sense of identity and calling.

This is good news for everyone, of course—but perhaps especially for people whose sense of identity and purpose are diminished, whose ability to live joyfully and fully are held back because of poverty or anything else that hinders their participation in life. Good news for the poor begins with a reminder that they bear God’s image.

Thank you, God, for creating us in your image and giving us life in your world. Help us to see your image in everyone we meet. Amen.