Psalm 41:1-3 – “Blessed is he who considers the poor; the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. 2 The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. 3 The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.”  NKJV

In Matthew, Mark and Luke we have a quote from Jesus that there will always be poor in our midst.  No amount of legislation or moves toward Socialism will rectify that problem. It has always been and will always be.  There are some biblical methods to alleviate some of that with debt forgiveness on a regular cycle and other admonishments but even then, the poor will remain.

So rather than attempting to make it a biblical mandate to wipe out poverty we should consider how God views our response to the poor in our midst.  There are poor people who have been trapped in an economic cycle, there are poor people who are poor because of lack of willingness to labor and there are poor people who have wasted what they had creating a condition of poverty.  It is, in my view, biblical to help those who would get out of their condition if they could and are willing to work or are working.  It is quite another to continue to feed someone who is lazy and unwilling to work.  The apostle Paul addressed that saying, “…if any WOULD NOT work he SHOULD NOT eat.”

In Psalm 19:17 we find God’s view of the poor and our response, “When you help the poor you are lending to the Lord and He repays wonderful interest on your loan.”  Then in 1 John 3:17 we are reminded that, “…whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?”  In Proverbs 14:1 we find that the person who oppresses the poor is insulting God and if we help the poor we honor God.  Proverbs 21:3 we find the warning that if we shut our ears to the cries of the poor we will be ignored in our time of need.

The Promise is powerful in this passage and is confirmed or expanded in other passages.  The Promise is: deliverance in time of trouble, preservation and life, blessings, deliverance from our enemies and healing in time of sickness.  How can you beat a promise like that?  The question is do we truly believe it?  God never makes idle promises and if He declares something He will fulfill His word.

Again, I must draw back to the qualifier of the poor focused on.  I happy to provide assistance for the truly poor who would if they could rectify their situation and condition.  I am not so willing to become a facilitator for the lazy.  I believe in offering a hand up and even a hand out if in so doing we can enable that person or assist that person in breaking out of poverty into a more prosperous situation.

May the Lord touch our hearts with His generosity and help us to truly be of assistance and never become facilitators or perpetuators of idleness and laziness.   May the Lord guard and guide you as you go through this day and show you where you can help those needing help and open the door to His promises in your life on a greater scale.  Blessings!