8 OCT 2014 :: Poverty and Prayers

Thought I better get this done earlier today. :-)

I was catching parts of a movie about a young girl growing up in a hard part of Los Angeles and trying to win the National Spelling Bee. I was walking through the room when the end came on. Poverty neighborhoods are a gauntlet to live through. Hollywood versions are always upgraded, but it is wonderful to think about families coming together, schools and communities gathering for each other, kids overcoming the handicaps of their life, and all the things a good movie like this can bring to our hearts.

I seem to cry when poverty issues are brought up in the news, in print media, and now in social media. Crimes are committed, prisons are full, lives are destroyed (senselessly), and cemeteries are only place to find rest from the hardships of poverty...but, if we die without salvation, there won't be any rest from pain throughout our eternal existence.

Suffering is hard to watch. If you don't have the power to change it, there is nothing you can do except watch, and pray. I sometimes wonder how many organizations a single person, a regular person, can support. I can see why people in the End Times will eventually have "cold hearts" because of all the problems surrounding us every day. I am already making my own list of groups that I will support when GOD allows me to, but everything else will have to find someone else to be their supporter. Even crowd-funding won't be able to help everyone.

All of these issues surrounding poverty and suffering have touched my life as the years went by. To try to help others, I incorporated as many resources into Working Together as I could. Now I am striving to create the financial foundations that will allow them to be established and maintained for as long as GOD and the Body of Christ need them.

Being poor is not a crime, but it creates hard choices. If you don't have the Bible to guide you, your choices are very different. If I didn't have a relationship with GOD through Christ and the Holy Spirit, I might have been killed or killed myself already. Before I recommitted my life to GOD I did try to kill myself because I didn't want to feel the pain of living anymore. If I didn't have a relationship with GOD, there wouldn't be anything to keep me from doing things that hurt me and others. If I never discovered the love of GOD, there wouldn't be any goodness in my life. Struggling through all the problems I faced without faith in GOD and His Plan for my life would have been impossible.

I received an email asking to know my prayer needs. I answered. It was just too timely. :-)  I listed a bunch of my actual needs and then one prayer that would cover it all. :-)  That's another version of winning the lottery for me. :-) 

Praying doesn't mean we automatically get what we pray for, but it is an important act of faith.  I believe GOD provides the things we need to accomplish His Will for our lives...and sometimes that isn't what we want or the process is made more difficult by the one we call the Enemy (Satan).

Hopefully, there will be a light at the end of this tunnel...it's been a long tunnel.  :-(