June 4, 2026
While it is great to cook for church dinners, teach Sunday School and help with the endless positions vying for volunteers in every church, these may not be the functions God views as most important. The most notable helpers are the folks who leave the church building and hit the streets. Food banks, daycare centers, second hand shops, volunteers to drive seniors to medical appointments and dozens of other jobs communities seek.
When we address the wants of our home church, it is more personal, more seeing to the desires of the family. There are times when we keep our prayers and ministry inside the building. Intercessory prayer, church projects, visiting sick members and maintaining church property.
Other times, it is good to join the fray. Jump into the madness. Go to Walmart. Go to the park. Ask God to show you someone who needs a touch, a tired mom or someone calculating the final grocery bill, the ones placing hamburger or beans next to the magazines. Buy it for them. It isn’t our best work when we keep our prayers and ministry within the church. We call it, “We four and no more.” We have to trust God in order to trust people. While there are scammers involved in panhandling, some needs are very sincere. If God clearly tells you to give to someone, just do it. Trust Him more than your own cynicism. Become the hands and feet He is waiting for.
The grocery store line is not a good place for judgment. People are vulnerable when they’re worried about money. Also when they’re hungry. Mercy is the best hat to wear in the check out lane. Jesus would make the bread and fish increase. Be like Jesus.
Father God, please help me be a more loving Christian when I am in the marketplace. May I always remember what it is like to worry about money, to be tired of telling a cranky child ‘no’ every time they ask for something, and how it feels to worry about feeding a young family day after day. Thank you for always meeting my family’s needs and for making certain we had enough to eat and wear. I am so sorry for the times I have been too busy or too tired or just too lazy to see the hurt and need and hunger in other’s eyes. Forgive me.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ...