40acts: The Lent Generosity ChallengeSample

The message of Matthew 25:35–45 is direct. If we don’t help the vulnerable, the needy and the homeless, He will not know us. This instruction goes way beyond donating a pack of own-brand beans to the foodbank, or chucking some change into a hat on the street. 

‘Your faith is dead,’ James says, if you fall back on easy platitudes instead of looking after physical needs. God’s love for us must overflow into our love for others.

You walk past a homeless person on the way to work or while shopping. If you do nothing about his physical needs, or only say to him, ‘God bless you,’ then your faith is dead, according to James 2. That feels harsh but let’s look at it in a different way. You could transform the life of a homeless person, working with your church as a generous community. Food, shelter and support could turn someone’s life around and you have the power to do it.

It’s significant that the theme of the Feeding of the Five Thousand was this: Jesus saw the crowd and had compassion on them. The disciples said, ‘Send them away.’ But Jesus says to the fledgling church, ‘You give them something to eat.’ 

How do we handle our hearts with those who are homeless? If we live in cities or towns, it can become all too easy to blank out the same faces we see day after day. And the question nags at us: surely there’s more we can give than 50p here and there?

Jesus leaves no room for misinterpretation in Matthew 26:11. The poor will always be with us, until the end of the age. It’s up to us to honour Him by helping them.

 Find more about today’s 40acts challenge on our blog: https://40acts.org.uk/act-31-hope-for-the-homeless/