The Christian Family…Care for Each Other
1
Timothy 5:8
5/7/20
Pastor John C. Berg
But if anyone does not provide for his own family, and especially for
his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
This is your daily devotion for
May 7th. We started a new
series this week on the Christian family.
We’ve discussed fathers, husbands and wives, and grandparents. Today we’re not going to talk about specific
members of families but rather on the responsibilities and blessings of being
in a family. From 1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for
his own family, and especially for his own household, he has denied the faith
and is worse than an unbeliever.
Our understanding and application of providing for family has changed in
the last month and a half. How do you
care for elderly grandparents when you can’t or shouldn’t be in physical
contact with them? What about the college
student who is graduating into the worst economy in a long time or those
college students who returned home weeks ago already? These are responsibilities that can cause us
some stress. What should you do for your
adult children who lost their jobs in this terrible economy? How we care for each other is probably going
to change over the coming months.
We experienced the blessing and the responsibly of this in our own
family. You’ve heard me talk before
about how our daughter Madison, seven weeks ago, came down ill with all the top
symptoms of COVID-19. Let me show you
how God blessed us in this time: She’s
an adult but we were able to provide her with a place to quarantine for well
over a month. It didn’t really cause us
any financial hardship and she didn’t fall into poverty, like she might have if
she didn’t have family to help her. What
a blessing that is! And it’s a blessing
most of us have—that family safety net.
If things get really bad you can always move back home, or some version
of that.
We do need to remember that there are people who don’t have that. That’s why God calls upon us to be generous
and charitable even with those who aren’t members of our family. They might not have the same family safety
net that most of us do. It is of course
a tremendous blessing that most of us have families to help. It’s a responsibility to care for our
families, but one we are happy to do, and one that pleases God.
We pray, Dear Father thank you for blessing us with families who care
and provide for us. Help us to do the same. Give us the resources to also help those who
are not in our family and desperately need help. Amen.
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