by C.H. Spurgeon
Why does God allow so many of His children to be poor? He could make them all rich if He pleased. He could lay bags of gold at their doors. He could send them a large annual income and bless them with abundance.
There is no need for anyone to be poor except that God determines it be the best. “The cattle upon a thousand hills are His.” He could supply much to everyone. He could make the richest and greatest to bring their power and riches to the feet of His children, since the hearts of all men are in His control. But He simply does not choose to do this; He allows them to suffer lack, and to cry out in obscurity. But, again, why?
There are many reasons for this: one of them is to give those of us who are blessed with enough an opportunity to showing our love for Jesus. Yes, we show our love to Christ when we sing and pray to Him, but, if there were none in need, we would lose the sweet privilege of showing our love by helping our poorer brothers. This is the way that God has chosen for us to prove our love for them– not in words only but in actions.
For this reason, let us consider relieving the poor of God’s house to be less of a duty and more of a privilege, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, “What you have done for the least of my brothers you have done to me.” What motivation this should provide to us—to know that all we do for His people is graciously accepted by Christ as done to Him.
“Remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10).
