Week Four – Day 2
TODAY’S FAST – Today you have been sponsored by a Christian family in America. You now are able to add chopped vegetables to your beans and rice.
Devotional:
Read Matthew 25:37-46.
When we look at the story of the sheep and the goats in Mathew 25, we realize just how important people are to Jesus. In earlier discourses He tells His followers that the two greatest commandments are to love God and to love people (Mark 12:30-31). This parable explains His commandment further: we love God by loving people. There is no such thing as an un-humanitarian Christian. You either love God and people, or you hate them.
Right now there are needs all around us that need our attention. The question today is: Are we loving the people that Jesus so desperately cares about? Are we caring for the hungry, the thirsty, strangers, the naked, the sick, and those in prison (even if they made a mistake to be there)? Is our opinion of people in those categories full of love, or do we look at them as lazy, evil, or an inconvenience? Our opinion will inspire our actions. Our actions will tell us if we are a sheep or a goat.
This week, let’s consider our opinions and responses to people who are in need, even if the situation they find themselves in stems from their own mistakes. Let’s allow the grace that has been shown to us to be extended to those who really need it. Let’s reach out and meet needs in every practical way possible to our family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances and strangers.
Prayer Focus:
This week pray for those that you encounter in your life who can’t help themselves. Be willing to allow God to give you a heart that loves people (all people) as if they were Jesus, and act on it. Pray also for nations that are starving, and pray for willingness from God to help you be part of the solution.
Key Verse:
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40 NIV
