As a man with limited mobility living alone with two dogs, to say that my home had become a real mess would have been a gross understatement. On top of that, I have been going through a rough time financially and could not afford the help needed to clean up the mess. The pastors of my church (CLC) came to my rescue. They paid two Christian cleaning ladies to come in like a hazmat team for a total of ten hours to actually get the place presentable for guests to visit. On top of the cleaning, CLC arranged to replace my leaking kitchen faucet and one of the pastors repaired my front door latch which kept me from using that door. Maggie, one of those wonderful ladies, has volunteered to come by once a week without pay to check on me and help keep things from drifting back into chaos. I cannot express how blessed I have been by the actions of all of these brothers and sisters in Christ.
I’m reminded of the Message version of Proverbs 3:27. “Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God’s hand for that person.” That is so true. The works their hands have done are truly God’s hand reaching deep into my life. Throughout my life I have tried to help others who needed it and now I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of badly needed help. The amazing thing is that both giving and receiving help have blessed me greatly.
We have all heard that actions speak louder than words. George Elliot once wrote, “Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.” Horace Mann wrote, “It is well to think well; it is divine to act well.” But what is it that makes us feel so good whether we give or receive help? It is love! We read in 1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other, let us show the truth by our actions.” When we are prompted by the Holy Spirit within us to help someone else or to ask others for needed help and we obey that prompting, we release God’s love in the life of everyone involved.
God can, and often does, react to a need directly in a miraculous way. But it is obvious to me that He prefers to use our hands to deliver help in order to bless us as we show others the love He has shown to us.