The Connection of the Physical and the Spiritual
Our trip to Haiti was pretty eye opening, because of the conditions we saw. First of all, it was a dry, dusty, and barren place. I knew it was the poorest country in our hemisphere, but it was more desolate than I thought. The poverty is so pervasive that very few parents can care for their children. That is why they put them in the orphanages. Therefore, their physical needs lead them to exhaustion and desperation, especially if they do not know the Lord. That is usually how it works.
I was reading in Deuteronomy this morning, and it made more sense to me than ever. Moses told the people to care for the poor, even though they would always have poor people. Why should they expend the effort, if it would not do away with poverty? I think the Lord was showing them and us that until the physical needs are met to some degree, people have a hard time spiritually focusing on the Lord and His will. If they have to live with hunger and disease, always fearing for their safety and wondering if they will have enough to eat, they are not very likely to spend much time concentrating on spiritual things. Also, Satan uses these physical needs to play on people's emotions. He leads them to false religions that promise to meet their physical needs. Then, they are in rebellion to the Lord on top of their poverty.
All of us need to stop at some point in our lives and cry out to God. We need to confess Jesus as the Lord of the universe and begin to trust Him as Lord. We trust Him to meet our spiritual need of forgiveness of sins, but we also trust Him to meet our physical needs in His will. When a person prays that prayer, God will respond, whether the person is in Haiti or in the USA. God longs for us to realize His Lordship and to trust Him. He responds to faith. It is my prayer that the people of Haiti will understand that, and do that. While we were there, they were having a three day long period of prayer and fasting proclaimed by the government and even the businesses were closed for prayer. There was a report that the president of Haiti received Christ as Savior and Lord. It seems that this type of crying out could be a reality, and if it is, the physical needs in Haiti could be on their way to being met in God's way. I pray it is so.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 17-19.
I was reading in Deuteronomy this morning, and it made more sense to me than ever. Moses told the people to care for the poor, even though they would always have poor people. Why should they expend the effort, if it would not do away with poverty? I think the Lord was showing them and us that until the physical needs are met to some degree, people have a hard time spiritually focusing on the Lord and His will. If they have to live with hunger and disease, always fearing for their safety and wondering if they will have enough to eat, they are not very likely to spend much time concentrating on spiritual things. Also, Satan uses these physical needs to play on people's emotions. He leads them to false religions that promise to meet their physical needs. Then, they are in rebellion to the Lord on top of their poverty.
All of us need to stop at some point in our lives and cry out to God. We need to confess Jesus as the Lord of the universe and begin to trust Him as Lord. We trust Him to meet our spiritual need of forgiveness of sins, but we also trust Him to meet our physical needs in His will. When a person prays that prayer, God will respond, whether the person is in Haiti or in the USA. God longs for us to realize His Lordship and to trust Him. He responds to faith. It is my prayer that the people of Haiti will understand that, and do that. While we were there, they were having a three day long period of prayer and fasting proclaimed by the government and even the businesses were closed for prayer. There was a report that the president of Haiti received Christ as Savior and Lord. It seems that this type of crying out could be a reality, and if it is, the physical needs in Haiti could be on their way to being met in God's way. I pray it is so.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Deuteronomy 17-19.