Providing For Your Own

his article is being typed up on 7/2/10. The unemployment numbers were just released and our country still has an unemployment rate of 9.5%. Both our country and many of the other countries across the world are still mired down into bad recessions.

For America, the real unemployment rate is now closer to 17-18%, which means close to one out of every five people are still unemployed in this country. At this time, no one seems to have a handle as to when we are going to pull out of it. The stock market has been basically trading sideways since it does not know if our economy is going to rebound or not.

This particular recession also has a very nasty feel to it. I do not know if this more nasty feeling is lining up with the fact that we might be living in the end times, or if this nasty feeling is due to all of the other countries also being mired down into this bad recession.

But in either event, many more people are now getting scared and they are now saving what they can instead of spending like they used to, since no one knows for sure what the future is now going to hold. America’s economy is basically dependent upon the consumer spending and once the American consumer stops spending, it slows the economy down even more.

With so many people now having lost their jobs, there are many families who are now in major crisis mode. They have either lost their houses, or they are close to losing them due to not enough income coming in to meet their basic needs. As a result, some of these families now need some kind of help – either financially or possibly with some kind of physical shelter. In other words, they either need some type of financial aid, or they may need a place to stay at until they can get another job and get back on their feet.

For what it is worth, I thought I would do this short article for those Christians who have not been severely affected by this economic downturn. They either still have their good paying jobs, or they have enough money saved up right now where they have nothing to worry about. If you are one of those fortunate individuals or families, but you see some of your immediate family members starting to fall through the cracks as a result of losing their jobs, you may want to take a good look at the verse I will now give you for this article.

Fear is really starting to grip a lot of people because we simply do not know what the future is going to hold. As a result, many more people are now saving and they are reluctant to help anyone else out at this time for fear they will need this money for themselves at a later date if things go from bad to worse. As a result, you have many family members who are not getting any type of help from other family members who do have the money and means to help them out.

Again, if you are one of those fortunate families who still have quite a bit of your money left, and you do have the ability and means to help out some of your own immediate family members, take a look at this verse I will now give you:

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8)

I do not want to use this verse to try and put a guilt trip on anyone, but the message being given by the Lord to all of us in this verse is very straight forward and it ends on a very intense note.

The first thing to notice from this verse is that God will want you to “provide” for your own, especially with your immediate family members. What exactly does God mean by the word “provide?”

I know the word “provide” can mean to provide for their emotional, mental, and spiritual needs, but I also believe it means that we help them out with material needs when they will need help in that area. And material needs could either be money, or providing them a place to stay at so they are not living out on the streets.

And then notice how this verse ends – that if you are not willing to help provide for your own family, that you are denying your faith in God and that you are worse than an unbeliever. With God using such strong and intense language at the end of this verse, I can only come to the conclusion that God wants all of us to take care of our own as best as we possibly can, especially when they have fallen onto hard times like so many families now have as a result of this bad recession.

Again, I do not want to try and put a guilt trip on anyone, but if by chance you are one of those fortunate individuals or families who have not been severely affected by this recession, and you have quite a bit of money at your disposal to help someone else out, my best advice to you based upon the wording of this verse, is to go direct to God in prayer and ask Him if He wants you to help out any of your family members who are needing help.

If you approach the Lord in prayer with this kind of special request, not only will He give you a direct answer, but He might also tell you exactly how much money He will want you to give to them, along with whether or not you will need to open up your house to them so they can have a place to stay at until they can get back on their feet again.

Again, I know many people would not want to open up their homes for some of their other family members, as it would be a big burden and sacrifice to do this. But the wording in this verse is just too strong to ignore, especially if you have immediate family members right underneath your nose who are needing some kind of help to help keep them afloat.

If you find yourself on the fence post on this kind of an issue, again, it would be our recommendation to simply go to God in prayer and ask Him if He would like you to help some of your family members and if so, exactly what He would like you to do for them. If you are really worried about the future and you feel yourself a bit reluctant to want to lend out a helping hand, this is where you have to totally trust in God for your future.

If God has just protected you from this bad economic downturn, then He may continue to protect you in the future, especially if you are willing to help out some of your own as the above verse is telling us to do. As a result, you can comfortably release some of your money and possibly part of your house to some of your family members who are needing help right now. This is where you have to totally trust God to take care of all of this for you.

Conclusion

If we are truly living in the end times, then things are really going to heat up in the coming years. Per all of our articles in our End Times section, the Bible says that “perilous times” will come. And if those perilous times will start to come, many families are going to have to band together to help keep each other afloat and alive. The above verse may really have major application in the times we are now living in.

How long this particular recession will last, no one knows for sure. But I am hoping that God will allow us to have at least one more major economic upswing so the rest of His people and the rest of His ministries and churches can complete the task of getting the gospel preached out to the rest of the world, as the Bible says that the end will not come until the gospel has been preached to all of the world.

Again, to any of you who do have the means and money to help out some of your immediate family members who may have fallen onto hard times with this bad economic downturn, it would be our recommendation that you simply approach the Lord in prayer and ask Him how much and how far He will want you to go with some of your family members.

This is where each and every Christian has to totally trust in God to get them through these bad times and possibly even more bad times in the coming years ahead. If you decide to panic and start hoarding your money for fear of what the future may hold, God may hold you personally accountable for not being willing to help out some of your other family members based upon the very strong wording in the above verse.

I will end this article giving you 5 more verses on this topic:

1. “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:17-18)
2. “He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.” (Proverbs 22:9)
3. “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ (Acts 20:35)
4. “He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.” (Proverbs 19:17)
5. “You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’ (Deuteronomy 15:10-11)

Notice in the second last verse it says that he who lends to the poor is really lending to the Lord. And from there, it says the Lord will then pay that person back. The very last verse then adds a little more to all of this when it says that he who gives to the poor will be blessed by God in all of his works and in all to which he will put his hand to.

For those of you who are afraid of what the future may hold, these last two verses especially should give you good comfort that God will still take care of you and all of your financial needs in your future, especially if you are willing to help other people out from time to time who are really in need.

Again, we are not trying to put fear or a guilt trip on anyone, but we thought we would do this short article for all of you to let you know of this main verse at the top of this article, along with these 5 additional verses, as we feel these particular verses will have major application for many Christians today.