Remember

DEVOTION
GALATIONS
REMEMBER
Gal 2:9-10
They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
NIV
How do I remember the poor? Do I remember the poor? It certainly is the Christ-like way of life. Yet I think I have failed here is a great way. There are in some sense things I do to help some people who are less fortunate than I. but I do not think I actually go out of my way to remember the poor. This is sad. When I read a verse like this, I am reminded and I act in some small way to do something. I put something in the bucket at the store, or buy one of those brown bags the stores offer for the poor. Once in awhile we bring a turkey to one of the downtown ministries, but is that enough. What about all the others, can I help them all? Is it enough to be just a part of a larger body who all give a little and that makes up the large remembering the poor? I am not sure. I think I need to do something else. I have to seek out exactly what it is God desires me to do. What exactly I should do to remember the poor. Paul surely did not give all of his own possessions to the poor, but took up donations from one church to help another. He helped spread the gospel in the meantime as well. He supported himself not to be a burden on the church also. So how do I help? Can I bring more? Is supporting my local church remembering the poor in the sense the church provides goods to the poor, and thus I do my part? Not sure that is it either. I have to seek God more about this and my part in this area of my journey with him. I do not know if I am as eager as I should be or that I just feel a sense of the need to be obedient in this area. I do have to be careful that in my giving no one knows about it. I also have to be sure that I am not giving to make myself feel good about it. I should not be reluctant about it as God loves a cheerful giver. I think if God is speaking to me, I need to simply response in love and remember the poor. Yet I also have to think that the most effective way to be helping them is in assisting them to finding a personal relationship with Christ. If they become believers, will not God provide for them as he has for me? Is teaching them to fish not so much better the giving them a fish? Is it such a good thing to make people dependent on others for everything? Is it in their best interest? The gospel is the greatest gift I could ever give to the poor, and then they would be rich. This gets complicated. Prayer is another great gift; I could be remembering them in my prayers and thus fulfilling my part. At this point all I know for sure is I should remember them.