Lighten The Burdens Of Another Along The Way
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
1 John 3-7
Jesus, who walked the earth as love personified, is rarely pictured in the Gospels telling another individual, “I love you.” He didn’t have to; his actions spoke volumes—to the poor, the leper, the blind, the lame, the social outcast. By dealing with their physical need, Jesus set the stage for speaking to their spiritual need as well.
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The world’s calamity thus becomes the Christian’s opportunity, a situation Jonathan Edwards addresses.
WALK WITH JONATHAN EDWARDS
“There are innumerable kinds of temporal calamities in which men and women need help. Many are hungry, or thirsty, or strangers, or naked, or sick, or in prison, or in suffering of some other kind; and to all such we may minister.
“By thus endeavoring to do good to them externally, we have a greater opportunity to do good to their souls. For when our preachings are accompanied with such outward kindness, it opens the way to give the preachings their full force.
“And we may thus contribute to the good of others in three ways: By giving to them those things that they need and which we possess; by doing for them and helping promote their welfare; and by suffering for them, aiding them to bear their burdens, and doing all in our power to make those burdens lighter.”
WALK CLOSER TO GOD
In the final analysis, what every person needs is Jesus Christ. But if an empty stomach or a burdened heart or some other pressing need is clouding the message, perhaps it’s time for sympathy rather than a sermon.
You can give that others might listen. You can help that others might hear. You can lift a burden that others might learn firsthand of your burden-bearer.
That kind of love is hard to resist.
