By Not Known
Recently, I came to know a couple (married for ten years) who is about to be divorced. The husband is involved with another woman and gambling. The wife is suffering great pain with insomnia and feelings of betrayal and deep disappointment. The children hated their dad and cried for attention. How do I help them? How do I really gather enough strength and wisdom to minister to a broken family? Honestly, I must acknowledge that my words often come out empty and powerless; I can’t mend broken relationships and shattered hearts.
There are probably many more families and people who are suffering. People with troubled souls, broken homes and heartaches who are struggling emotionally, spiritually and physically. They are in despair and desperate for help – a listening ear, a prayer or a touch of care and kindness.
It is sad that many have failed morally, causing others around them to suffer while they continue to be consumed by their addictions and obsessions. They feel as hopeless and bound by the evil they had fallen into and couldn’t get out from the wrongs they have committed. How do we even help them? Who can change them? What are the consequences they suffer?
In our fallen world, many are also suffering from different illnesses. The quality of life become a major concern. Some are caught in the poverty cycle and struggle to get by daily in our high-cost society. On the contrary, there are the very rich but with very little meaning to live on. How ironic and pathetic that the whole mankind is subject to sin. Who can grant them forgiveness and deliverance? Who can meet everyone’s needs?
Only God our Creator, Saviour and the Sovereign Lord, can meet those in need. He loves His creation and mankind. He cares for the fatherless and He is a defender of widows (Ps 68:5). The Lord Jesus sympathises with our weaknesses and those in trouble (Heb 4:15). The Lord also welcomes the children (Mt 19:14) who are considered the weak and valueless in the society. He heals the sick, delivers the demon possessed and feed the hungry and thirsty. We have a caring God.
If God can help the weak, the sick and the needy, how about us? James 1:27 attests the marks of being God’s people. He said “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” The word, “Religion” is the external manifestation of spirituality i.e. a relationship with God. In other words, if we claim to be religious or spiritual, then our life must display the characters and will of God. Specifically in James 1:27 are those who care for orphans and widows including the needy, sick, the weak, and the troubled, etc. Put it this way, we are to be Jesus’ “mouth, hands and feet” to do the caring ministry on earth. We do not have the strength and wisdom as I wrote earlier but we could only rely on God’s strength to do His work. As the apostle Paul acknowledged in Phil 4:13, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” So, I encourage you to reach out to people who are in need and live out your faith. If you need a platform to do God’s work, how about joining the visitation team?
John Chew