Author Max Lucado writes: ‘Ours is the wealthiest generation of Christians ever. We are bright, educated, and experienced. We can travel around the world in twenty-four hours or send a message in a millisecond. We have the most sophisticated research and medicines at the tips of our fingers. We have ample resources. A mere 2 per cent of the world’s grain harvest would be enough, if shared, to erase the problems of hunger and malnutrition around the world. There is enough food on the planet to offer every person twenty-five hundred calories of sustenance a day. We have enough food to feed the hungry…When your grandchildren discover you lived during a day in which 1.75 billion people were poor and 1 billion were hungry, how will they judge your response?’

More importantly, what will God say? When the Israelites complained that God wouldn’t answer their prayers, even after they had fasted, He told them: ‘The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility?...What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once…Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, “Here I am.”’ (v.7-8 MSG).

These verses tell us something important: being aware of the needs of others, and doing what we can to meet them, is an immensely powerful demonstration of our devotion to God. He delights in our acts of kindness. Let’s choose to focus on the needs of others rather than thinking only of our own needs.

What Now?

What could you do to help a charity today? It doesn’t necessarily have to be volunteering or donating to it yourself – you could even do things like starting to organise a fundraiser, or setting yourself a target of telling five people about the charity to help raise awareness.