SCRIPTURE: Psalm 146
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. [Psalm 146:9]
As we saw yesterday, God’s universal love includes all people, from all nations.
But why then did God choose the people of Israel as His holy, covenant people?
How can God be both exclusive and inclusive in His love?
The answer lies in WHY God chose the children of Abraham.
Not to forget the rest of the world, but to use this nation as His missionaries to reveal His will and purpose – to overcome sin (the ways of the wicked) and to help the weak and oppressed (foreigners, fatherless, widows).
The children of Abraham were blessed to be a blessing [Genesis 12:1-2]

I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. [Luke 4:25-26]
Jesus angers His own hometown people by showing them how often God’s people miss out on His grace because of their pride and selfishness.
Instead of allowing them to enjoy the good news He has just announced, He challenges them for becoming obstacles to that good news, instead of missionaries for it.
In this content He reminds them how God has always remembered the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows.

This must be a huge frustration for God – the people He saves to help Him save others become so wrapped up in themselves they forget their mission.
The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had the same problem, and the church today is often caught within the same trap!

We need to expand our view of God beyond ‘God for me’ to ‘God for the world’.
We need to expand our vision of God’s purpose, beyond ‘my needs’ to the ‘needs of the world’.
God is the loving, compassionate Ruler of the Universe, one that does not look out for Himself but for the people – unlike the princes of the world.
God chooses and places people for a purpose, to use them to further His mission.
Either we join Him in His good news mission of helping the weak, the needy, the oppressed, or we get out of the way.

How are you working with God in His mission?
Is your church working with the foreigners, fatherless and widows?
Or are we and our churches more concerned about our needs, our kingdoms?

PRAYER:
Lord, open my eyes to see the people You care about that I do not see. Help me to do more than appreciate Your grace for me, help me to share it with others.