Meeting Others Needs

Meeting Others Needs

"At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need."
2nd Corinthians 8:14

In many of my devotionals, I talk about being a witness for God and ministering to meet the spiritual needs of others. Today, I want to discuss the importance of ministering to others by meeting their natural needs. When we think about natural needs we typically think about food, clothing and shelter as being the life essential needs of people. The Bible has dozens of scriptures where God expects us to always help the poor and less fortunate. James tells us that if we say to the hungry and naked, "be fed and be clothed", but offer no help, we have only dead faith. We live in a world which is filled with natural needs that are going unmet, as we only have to turn on our televisions to see pictures of starving people, and where entire nations have no food, clothing and shelter. We don't even have to look outside our nation, as in your own towns and cities, there are people going hungry, and who do not have shelter from the elements. Over the years, I have found that when we begin to meet the natural needs of people, this opens the door to meet their spiritual needs as well. When you begin to distribute food to the needy, in your local community center or church, you are able to minister to the people at a spiritual level and tell them about Jesus. The people in line at the local food bank usually are not the people in the church pews on Sunday, and are the ones that need Jesus the most. This can be your ministry to meet their natural needs and also their spiritual needs.