Have a little Compassion....

This Sunday is Compassion Sunday! Compassion is an international Christian child development and child advocacy ministry committed to working in partnership with local churches around the world to foster the spiritual, economic, social, physical and emotional development of children living in extreme poverty in over 26 developing countries.

I have been a committed Compassion sponsor for over 6 years now.

I sponsor two kids, Love & Sumaillah, whom I love dearly. I also sponsor Compassion's child survival program in Pitipana, Sri Lanka and a few other Compassion projects. 

Personally, I think there's few other things as rewarding as sponsoring a child. Children are our future, and we often forget how lucky we are to be born in a Western world, to well-off families. We have never had to worry about what to eat, apart from being burdened by first world problems, such as decided whether to by McDonald's or KFC. We have never had to worry about having a roof over our heads. We've never walked miles and miles to get water. We have so much, that we take for granted as our birthrights; so many things that our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world have to fight neck and tooth for. 

So what should our response be? To be thankful and grateful to God? Absolutely, it is from His hand that we have all that we have. But that is merely the first step. The next is to be generous with what we have. The early church in Acts modelled what generosity among Christians should look like - In Acts 4:32-27, we learn these two lessons about generosity: 

1. No one claimed that any of his possessions were his own. 

This is what our attitude towards money should be like. It is not our own, but given to us by God. Therefore, we should choose to honour Him in how we spend it. Now, this is not to say that we should give it all away. Saving is good, providing for your family is good too. In other parts of the Bible, Paul tells us that we should look out for widows and needy in our families so that they do not become a burden for the church. But, I believe this passage is telling us we need to be generous, to be willing to hold money in looser hands and to be willing to give to the needy - Why? Because Jesus gave up everything for us, including his rights as God, to die for us. What a generous God we have! 

2. They shared what they had and there were no needy persons among them. 

They saw each other for what they were - family; fellow brothers and sisters in God's family. Paul saw the command to look after those in your family to mean all in our spiritual family too! Yet we know that this is not how it is in the world. In reality, according to United Nations, if 10% of the world's richest people gave away 10% of their income, we'd have eradicated absolute poverty already! We ask & ask & ask God to provide for us, not realising and willing to realise that He has already given us the resources we need. So let's be generous with what we have. If we can't do it now with what we have, we will not be able to do it when we've accumulated more savings. 

So I encourage, you friends, to be generous today. Consider what you give to those who are needy and to God's work around the world. Give, as freely as He has given to you. We could all use just a little more compassion in our days..