Hope at last

Read > Deuteronomy 10:17-19

He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing (v. 18).

You won’t find it [Kibera] on your tourist map – or any other map. It’s a squatters’ camp, an illegal, forgotten city, and at least one third of Nairobi lives here,” explains BBC East Africa Correspondent Andrew Harding. Located in Kenya, Kibera is an enormous slum. And it was there that a friend and I encountered an elderly man in a shabby suit who epitomized faith. “I’ve just come from church,” he proclaimed. Undaunted by the trash and wretched stench that permeated his 600-acre neighbourhood, he thanked us for visiting and added with a smile, “The Lord loves us [slum dwellers] and will provide for us.”

That man profoundly grasped these truths:

·         God “lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, placing them in seats of honour. For all the earth is the Lord’s, and He has set the world in order” (1 Samuel 2:8).

·         God “rescues the poor from the cutting words of the strong, and rescues them from the clutches of the powerful” (Job 5:15).

·         God “will listen to the prayers of the destitute. He will not reject their pleas” (Psalm 102:17).

·         “What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory [God] will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18).

·         God, who “did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all,” will “also give us everything else” (Romans 8:32).

·         Nothing can ever separate us from Christ’s love, not even severe financial poverty. “Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? … No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:35, 37). Amen. – Roxanne Robbins

More >

The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble (Psalm 9:9).

Next >

How has God met your deepest needs? What will you do today to help others see their circumstances through the eyes of faith?