Focusing on the Vulnerable
Others, Poverty“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Isaiah 58:6-7
In both the Old and New Testaments, we see God’s heart for the vulnerable and His desire for us to show compassion.
“Learn to do what is right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
-Isaiah 1:17
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
– James 1:27
Even more dramatically, God went so far as to say that those who show mercy to the poor, the sick and the needy are in effect ministering to Him personally (Matthew 25:35–40) and will be rewarded accordingly.
Who are the most vulnerable? The Bible speaks of the hungry and oppressed (Isaiah 58:10); the hungry, thirsty, sick, stranger and prisoner (Matthew 25:31–46); those walking in darkness (Isaiah 9:2); the blind, lame, lepers, the deaf, the dead and the poor (Luke 7:22); and those estranged from their Creator like lost sheep (Isaiah 53:6). When we speak of the most vulnerable, we refer to Scripture’s special place for all of those experiencing some kind of physical or spiritual poverty.
How does it work?
Basically, as we go to any new place, we take time to seek God and ask Him to show us the vulnerable with whom He would have us work. We don’t have a prescribed formula or a clearly-defined list of groups that we focus on. We realize God is concerned with all sorts of needy people. It does mean that often we end up helping in challenging circumstances or helping people that are neglected by other programs.
Originally published on Reconciled World. For more information about this organization, please see their website.