February 12 Thought for the day....meeting needs

One of my greatest joys is the privilege we have as a church of investing in the lives of those who are touching the lives of others. We are able to give 10's of thousands of dollars to help our families that are spreading the Gospel around the world. At the same time, on occasion some of our families here at home are overwhelmed by a need, everyone can have financial difficulty sometimes, together as a church are able to bring joy to them as well. Paul talks about this being part of our call as a church family...Romans 12:13

"...distributing to the needs of the saints."

Together we are fulfilling this direction from the Holy Spirit. I know it can get confusing with all of the great humanitarian organizations out there, but the instruction from the Lord through Paul is that our responsibility first is to the needs of the saints.

The word distributing is taken from the Greek to means to share to give some kind of financial contribution. The tense tells us that Paul is calling us to do it with intentionality, continually. It should be a consistent regular habit of ours to do this.

When Paul uses the word "needs," it means the basic, daily supply for the family. Paul is challenging us to make sure that those who are doing the work of ministry or being an example of Christ-likeness to everyone is daily having their basic needs met.

I have worked with many good humanitarian organizations, but as family, it is our job to make sure our family is cared for first. John first epistle, chapter three makes that clear when he writes, "If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions."

I want to thank you if you are a regular tither to your church. Hopefully, your church is doing what we do, and we support fellow believers around the world so they can continue to minister and we help those in our church family who will be accountable with the funds to overcome their financial struggles. If so, then every week, you are following the Holy Spirit's directive from Paul, and you should begin to look for the blessing in your life!

We never give a handout only a hand up!