DAY
10
OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ORPHANS AND WIDOWS
GOD COMMANDS HIS PEOPLE throughout Scripture to take care of those who have no family. The gospel of God’s grace compels us to treat them fairly and to provide for them generously. We ought to speak out when orphans and widows are oppressed.
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
ISAIAH 1:17
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
JAMES 1:27
Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
JEREMIAH 22:3
Responding in Prayer
- Ask God what role he might have for you in terms of caring for orphans in your community.
- Pray for the widows in your church. Ask them how you can best serve them.
- Pray that God would give you the courage to speak up on behalf of those who are oppressed. Pray also that our political leaders would act with justice and mercy in relation to widows and orphans.