Caring Enough to Act

Meditate: Acts 2:45

As we’ve talked about before this isn’t an image of people cashing everything in and living off the proceeds. Other accounts of this kind of care make it clear that when people had stuff and saw that their stuff could be better used to meet a need then they sold it and met the need.

So I don’t think I’m reading between the lines too much if I say that most of this sharing is apparently being handled at a person-to-person level (at this point-things do get more complicated later).

Their care for one another wasn’t yet dependent on having an organization to give to that would then distribute the help. They just took care of one another. Organizations can be helpful things but people almost always do a better job of taking care of other people.

And the Church still works best that way. So if you see a need and you have the means, then you meet the need. Don’t weasel around saying “I’ll pray about it…” Take a God-sized risk and just assume that God has put these resources in your hands “for just such a time as this.”

If you don’t have the means then do what you can to get the need met.

When we get away from this idea that Christians take care of their fellow Christians and start to expect the organization we call “the Church” to take care of folks, then we really lose out. That’s why the Church does its best job of caring when individual Christians look out for one another.

• Am I looking out for my fellow Christians?

Pray:
Praise: You are the Lord, God our Savior who daily bears our burdens.
Confess: I’ve often failed You by only looking out for myself.
Thank: Your care is faithful; Your love never ends.
Ask: Show me how to best serve my fellow believers.

Digging Deeper: Galatians 6

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