Remember the poor.

Scripture:

6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, ^[a] just as Peter had been to the Jews. ^[b] 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas ^[c] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.  (Galatians 2)

Observation:

Throughout the Bible you see that God has huge compassion for the poor and downtrodden. Here we see that the early Church as led by Peter still had this heart when they sent Paul out to preach the Gospel to the gentiles. They approved of Paul going to everyone with the Gospel, but wanted to be sure that the poor everywhere did not get forgotten.

Application:

How can I remember the poor in what I do today? There are poor everywhere and it is easy to be overwhelmed by it and end up doing nothing. I think that the heart of Jesus when He walked the earth was to simply do what he could and help one person at a time. When God puts a under-resourced person in front of me, I just need to have the heart to be Jesus to them in whatever way I can. Even Peter when confronted by a beggar in Acts did not have any money. What he did have, however, was the compassion of Jesus that led him to minister to him in a way that honored God and healed the broken mans body.

Prayer:

God help me to remember the poor around me and in the world today. But Lord help me to not just remember them, but to love them just like You love me. Amen.