Fear God: Care for the Needy

The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 

Therefore also we are determined, whether at home or abroad, to gain the honor of being well pleasing to Him. 2 Corinthians 5:9 

The past few days I have been considering if I did the right thing in helping the needy saints. Though I took the initiative to help the needy saints as much as I could, praying for them and praying with them, and even arranging some financial assistance to meet their needs, I even reconsidered if I were overtaken by my emotion or did it in my natural human "goodness". I even questioned myself if I was being cheated by some of these needy saints who expressed their needs to me, or were they craftily taking advantage of my soft heart? In fact, I was a little concerned if I gave the wrong impression to the needy saints, giving room for them to play with my emotion and generosity.  For some reason, the needy saints generally called me to fellowship with me about their situations. Generally, I sympathize with them and made arrangements to help them out. As I was considering my so-called "caring for the needy", I was comforted by the Lord through His speaking. Today morning I received this word from the PSRP of our training, "Fearing the Lord causes one to be touched by the suffering of others and showing mercy and compassion to them."

The first principle for man to live a proper human life is for him to fear the Lord, to revere the Lord; fearing the Lord stops us from doing evil; it also causes us to be touched by the sufferings of others and to show mercy and compassion to them. (Excerpt from the Crystallization-Study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, Message Eleven)

The Lord is the best pattern for me to follow. When He was on the earth He cared for the needy even if they just came to Him to meet just their needs. The Lord still cared for them without any expectation from them in return. But He did it in oneness with the Father.

In the past few months, I had been quite involved in my inward being with five families as I came to know about their real situation, especially of their urgent financial needs. I did my best to make necessary financial arrangements in a way of offering or otherwise too. As I fellowshipped with them I could feel the pain that they have been going through. I reckon their needs as my own need. But I first brought the matter to the Lord in prayer. After the peace and confirmation from the Lord, I made arrangements within my own capacity and some I fellowshipped with the church brothers to make arrangements from the church side. The cases that were brought to me were all taken care of. There was indeed such peace and life flowing after helping the needy saints. 

Though there was a reconsideration of what I have been doing for caring for the needy saints, the Lord confirmed to me through His speaking that caring for the needy is indeed an aspect of fearing the Lord reverentially.

To fear the Lord is to consider and regard Him in everything, never forgetting that He is the wonderful God who has created us (Isa. 43:7); fearing the Lord stops us from doing evil; it also causes us to be touched by the sufferings of others and to show mercy and compassion to them. (Excerpt from the Crystallization-Study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, Message Eleven)

Now I have been comforted by the Lord's speaking that I did what I should have done. Therefore, no regrets about caring for the needy. In fact, I should care for the needy much more as much as the Lord allows me to and provides me the resources to do so. This is an aspect of fearing the Lord and being determined to gain the honor of being well-pleasing to Him.