There are times I get so sad because I feel I am not educated enough, wise enough, rich enough to help or make a difference in this world. God sends reminders of this one and that one I made a difference to. I still feel so inadequate when so many many are hurting and in need, I picked up a book and happened to read the part where a pastor went for a walk on the beach after a storm and saw millions of starfish washed up on the beach by the storm. He said he sat down and cried because so many would die. Then he saw a man down the beach bending and standing over and over and went to see what he was doing. The man was picking up the starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. The pastor said he asked him why he was doing that when it couldn’t make a difference. He said the man bent over picked up the starfish and tossed it into the ocean and then said, “IT MADE A DIFFERENCE TO THAT ONE.” I still get down from time to time and feel I can’t really make a difference but the God reminds me all things are possible for Him. I can’t feed 5000 but maybe help one, I can’t heal the sick, but maybe help one or encourage one if I am lucky enough that God uses me. The greatest among us are God’s servants. God’s plans are so much higher than anything we can image and of course God need not run them by us first.
Isaiah 55:8-11 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are My ways your ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
There are those who say it is the churches who are to help the poor. The church is not a building but the body of believers. Too often we give to a building only to pay for the building. Nothing against the building but it is the people we see every day that may need a helping hand. God can and does, and will send us into the path of One in need if we are willing. Love your neighbors one at a time, one pebble at a time, one starfish at a time.
Psalm 41:1 Blessed is he who considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in his time of need.
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