God and Widows and His People
Posted By Jacque on May 29, 2009
I am working on a post for Gleaning the Harvest about what the Bible says about widows. I don’t know that I have ever really noticed all God has to say in the Old Covenant (OT), and I only knew of a few references in the New. However, God constantly told his people, Israel, to care for the widows as a part of love and reverence to him and also to remember that he brought them out of the bondage in Egypt.
When they disobeyed his commandments, he would tell them to turn from their wickedness and return to him or he would remove them from their land, and many times a part of their wickedness was that they cared not for their widows and orphans. “Their widows”. I believe God wants us to get that that these moms and children are “our widows”, and he wants us, his hands, to care for them.
He gave widows and congregations specific guidelines and instruction on who is considered a widow and why or why not. He admonishes widows to focus on God, and also admonishes some to marry for specific reasons. Some of these younger widows are not to be cared for by the congregation.
If God cares so much about the who, what, where, when and why of widows, shouldn’t we also study and care enough to love and reverence him through our care for them?
Do you care for the widows in your community? Are there widows at your church? Are there widows in your neighborhood or a nursing home close by? Surely there are. How do you as beloved of the Father care for them for him? Do you visit? Do you give to them or do they have to find ways to care for themselves?
Is there a widow in your own family? One thing I found was that families are admonished to care for their own widows. A widow should not have to go seek out employment and care for herself. Families are to care for their own widows. Yes, I know this is not a politically-correct or even a church and society-correct view. But it is God’s view and his commands. Who are we to argue with that? Or change it?
We are not to.
We are to follow it and follow it well.
If you do not have opportunity to give to God by supporting our widows, please visit Gleaning the Harvest and support the widows and fatherless there. Presently there are four families represented. We currently have several more waiting for approval. Please support them and also Gleaning the Harvest as a website. We need all the free advertisement from God’s people as we can get. We do not charge for anything and we do not take any of the donations. All of it goes to whomever you send it to. You will find individual icons for each family and ChipIns on my sidebar.
James 1:27
The religious observance that God the Father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being contaminated by the world.
The lovely woman in this photo is Grandma Dixon. She gave to the Lord and lived for him. She was widowed the entire time I knew her, and lived on only what she had need of, giving all the rest away to others. Her son cared for her in every way he could as did we all. She was a blessed woman, though most would have considered her quite poor. She knew she was blessed. Last year, we said good-bye to her when she died from complications from Alzheimer’s. We were crushed to say good-bye, but we look forward to rising to meet the Saviour with her in the near future.
Every widow is someone’s daughter, mother, grandmother or friend. All in all, they are God’s concern and also should be ours. May God bless you with a love for widows and orphans. May he give you the means and the direction you need to be his arms extended for their care.
In Him, on the journey~
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Widows are such a blessing to have and I enjoy to help them. We have a deaf widow that we help from time to time. She is close to my heart and I adore her. Widows can be such a blessing to know!
Charlenes last blog post..Concerning Home Church part 3
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