Poor

All the brothers of the poor hate him;How much more do his friends go far from him!He may pursue them with words,Yet they abandon him.

Proverbs 19:7 (NKJV)

When you are going through hard times, it is so much harder when you are alone. Our proverb today states that when we need companionship, comfort, and the help of others the most, that is often when we are the least likely to find it. Job found out that was true. Listen to his pitiful words in Job 19:14, 19: “My relatives have failed, and my close friends have forgotten me. . . . And those whom I love have turned against me” (NKJV). Wow! He is feeling really low, and we have to remember that he had done nothing wrong. It was not because of his own sin against God or others that he was afflicted.

If you are in a place where you feel really, really poor and really, really alone, who can you turn to? There is no one better than the Lord himself. He has given us the book of Psalms to comfort and encourage us. As I read the Psalms, I always see that I am not the only one who is going through struggles and feeling discouraged. But then the words lead me from that low place to higher ground. They remind me that the Lord has not forgotten or forsaken me. One of the reasons I love reading The One Year Bible is that it lays out a psalm to read every day.

Today’s reading includes Psalm 10:14: “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless” (NIV).

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

Abraham Lincoln wasn’t just a great president; he was a great man. He was born in poor conditions, his son Willie died at only eleven, he faced intense political opposition and then saw the country endure a civil war. Like Jesus, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And yet he knew one of the great secrets of life: “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.” Will you seek to do that today?

One Year Bible Reading

1 Chronicles 15:1–16:36; Romans 1:18-32; Psalm 10:1-15; Proverbs 19:6-7