| | | AUGUST | 5 | TUESDAY
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| True Riches
Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith?
— James 2:5
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| READ: James 2:5-7
REFLECT: According to the United States Census Bureau, 12 percent of Americans live in poverty. Sadder yet is that 17 percent of American children live in poverty. Similarly, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that 11 percent of Canada’s general population and 15 percent of its children live in poverty.
Too often when we think of the poor, we think of children with bloated bellies in developing countries. We ignore the fact that millions of families on our own continent are just barely getting by. Some, according to media reports, skip meals to stretch their paychecks. How can this be in such rich countries?
James points out what appears to be God’s preference for the poor. He describes them as “rich in faith” while he calls the rich oppressors. I have a feeling that most poor people don’t want to be held up as models of faith, as if their poverty somehow makes them better Christians. I suspect they would prefer not to be forced to choose between feeding their families and paying their utilities.
Still, the poor show deep faith in their true dependence on God, which grows out of their more-dire circumstances. God is not calling us to keep the poor in their poverty, but to learn from their faith. We are all called to depend on God more fully and to love each other more deeply. Only then will we all become “rich in faith.”
— Jennifer Esbenshade
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| RESPOND: Out of your innumerable riches, O Lord, bless me with what truly matters—a deeper faith in you—so that I can more fully depend on you.
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