My question was not about faith, but pertaining to the love, respect, and integrity Christians show to others. The premise was why Christians can't be the hands and feet of Jesus, obeying Him to help the poor and afflicted. This is not a societal issue. This is a base spirituality issue that should spread across all faiths. The scriptures are the scriptures. It is, in fact, a commandment. Think of Matthew 25:35-40 (look it up on Biblegateway if you need to). I have volunteered quite a bit for Christian causes (feeding the hungry, church events, other faith based events), and now I can't even get a bit of help. I don't want it to be my reward, but an opportunity for others to get a reward.
I understand what you're saying. Unfortunately, too often we get soft. We get our wants mixed into our needs. We think we deserve more, for ourselves. We forget that God blesses us so we have more to give to others, not so we can make our own lives more comfortable. Two years ago we found ourself in a financial situation that was beyond our control Even though we worked, we were in over our heads financially. Often we felt desperate, praying daily that God would provide for us that day, so we could eat, so we could pay our bills. During this time, God gave me a soft heart for people who were in even worse situations than we were. He urged me to give, what I could. Often, it is out of that need, and then realizing what we do have, realizing we have enough for today, that He is looking after our needs, if not our wants... it's in this that we are able to look past ourselves and look to others. I am so grateful that I have been in that situation. It has helped me to look past myself and to others who have it worse. In my morning reading, I came across this quote by Ann Voskamp and thought it applied to this thread:
Its hard to go into places we never knew existed. Its hard to help people hidden in plain sight when we are not looking for them. Its hard to be aware of them and their plight when we are distracted by other pressing concerns, namely ourselves. While we are busy trying to make our own lives easier, better and happier and securing our own prosperity, education, comfort and safety, we can so easily forget that these are the right of every son and daughter of the king.
It's a beautiful day when we can look past ourselves and reach out to the needs of others. And it's amazing that it ends up blessing us even more than those we are helping. That's the incredible hand of God!
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