Showing Christ by Helping Others
It was Thursday morning a couple of months ago. In a way I had not planned (or more accurately put, in a way that was completely different than what I had planned!), God put it on my heart to preach the following Sunday (three days away) on care for children in need of a family.
Specifically, Psalm 10 came to my mind, where God refers to himself as the “helper of the fatherless” who does “justice to the fatherless” (see verses 14 and 18).
Later that day, I found out that there is a crisis in the foster care system in my community. And crisis is the right word. One social worker said it’s “the worst we’ve seen in decades.”
Hundreds of children in our surrounding counties are in need of homes, and many of them are sleeping on sofas in social work offices, in hotels, or in homeless shelters. In one of our counties, 46 children were in need of a home, and they had zero families to care for them.
When Crisis Meets God’s Timing
That Thursday, one particular child had come into foster care, and because there was no place for this child to go, this child slept in a homeless shelter. Three days later, this child asked a social worker to take them to church, and the social worker brought this child to where I just so happened to be preaching on God as helper to the fatherless.
That day, this child not only heard about God’s love for them, but in Spirit-led response to God’s Word, hundreds of people signed up to explore fostering children, mentoring children who are aging out of the foster care system, and supporting the many people involved in foster care.
When God puts something on our hearts to do according to his Word, we should do it.
One family in particular, who just so happened to already be approved for fostering, heard about this specific child who had been in the homeless shelter, and by the next Thursday, they were caring for this child in their home.
There are many things I could say about what God did that Thursday morning, the following Sunday, and what God is doing even now. But for now, I simply want to encourage you. When God puts something on your heart to do according to his Word, I want to encourage you to do it.
Answer the Call
If you are a follower of Jesus, God’s Spirit and God’s Word are alive and at work in you. I encourage you to pray continually for sensitivity to his Spirit, in such a way that when he redirects your plans according to his Word, you follow his leadership.
It may be small: God placing someone on your heart or mind to pray for, you praying for them, and then reaching out to them to encourage them and let them know you’re praying for them.
By helping others, we can be a small part of a grand script that only God can write for others’ good, our joy, and his glory.
Or it may be something more: God prompting you to share the gospel with someone who doesn’t know Him, God leading you to serve someone in need, or God directing you to do any number of other things according to his Word.
To be clear, I’m not saying I’m perfect at this, or that I always follow the leadership of God’s Spirit in my life. But I am saying that when I do sense him leading me in a particular way according to his Word, and I follow his leadership, I discover time and time again what it is like to be a small part of a grand script that only God can write for others’ good, my joy, and his glory.
This article first appeared in The Commission, Radical’s biweekly newsletter featuring global gospel stories and encouragement from David Platt and others to help you follow Jesus and make Him known. Subscribe to the Commission today.
