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This is my designated Food Pantry Day. As a church secretary, I share this responsibility with two other ladies. If anyone in need comes to our church, it is my job to give them food, church information and if they would like one, a Bible. Some days I’ll have several visitors, some days I’ll have none. I used to pray every Wednesday morning that God would give me a compassionate heart for those who came to my door that day. Until this very morning, I have not prayed such a prayer in months.
Tonight, I will teach a Women’s Bible Study. The women in this class are just like me. They are busy women who love God and seek a deeper relationship with Him. I love teaching women like myself. I am comfortable with them. I know them. They know me. Women’s Ministry is both awesome and fulfilling. I have been so blessed and encouraged by these and other women just like me.
This morning, however, God had a few things to say to me about my attitude. I was reviewing the lesson for tonight that I had prepared months ago when I came across these words of Jesus in Luke 6:20-21:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours in the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.”
In the lesson that I’m sharing this very evening, I will stress that Jesus spoke these words to the 12 apostles, whom he had just appointed. He said these words as crowds of disciples and “a great number of people… who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.” (Luke 6:17-19)
I am planning to teach the women in my class that these are the kinds of people that Jesus wanted the apostles to minister to: the sick; the afflicted; and the poor. These are the ones we are to minister to as well. This morning, I was personally convicted to serve the poor in my own community with compassion and grace.
I am so in awe of the mighty power of God’s Word! How could something that I wrote months ago hit me on the day that I really needed it? God knew that my attitude was poor. God knows that I want to minister to women just like me. God knows that my heart was ready to keep His love and His grace and His mercy exclusive.
This morning I prayed once again for a compassionate heart. Once again I prayed through these scriptures:
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10
"My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused." Hosea 11:8
All scripture is from the NIV
2004 Copyright – Lisa D. Beaman
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