Bible Society of South Africa

40 DAYS – Time with God – Day 32

Voluntary Poverty

by Noelene Curry

Bible text(s)

Isaiah 58

6“The kind of fasting I want is this: remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. 7Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives.

8“Then my favour will shine on you like the morning sun, and your wounds will be quickly healed. I will always be with you to save you; my presence will protect you on every side. 9When you pray, I will answer you. When you call to me, I will respond.

“If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil word; 10if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon. 11And I will always guide you and satisfy you with good things. I will keep you strong and well. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring of water that never runs dry. 12Your people will rebuild what has long been in ruins, building again on the old foundations. You will be known as the people who rebuilt the walls, who restored the ruined houses.”

Isaiah 58:6-12GNBOpen in Bible reader

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter and when you see the naked to clothe them, and not turn away from your own, the body of Christ? Mother Teresa saw many unwanted unloved, and uncared for people. She says: ‘I think there is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat’ God has commanded us to love one another as Christ has loved us,  Can we dare pray that God will reveal the poverty inside us and fill us with the love of God, in order that we may alleviate the poverty and hunger of others?

Bible Society of South Africav.4.26.9
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