Today we continue our partial fast, to focus our attention and prayers on behalf of the poor around the world. For more details on what we have invited the VRBC congregation to do, please see previous posts from this week. Check this blog each day this week for Scriptures and suggestions to help guide our prayers.

Is poverty our problem? Sometimes it is tempting to disassociate, to think about it as someone else's problem, especially if it's not right in front of our face every day. Consider the following Scriptures:

Jeremiah 22:15-16

“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord.

• Pray that God will take away your lust for "more and more."
• Remember that it is God who has provided you with food and drink. Pray that God will teach you "the secret of being content" (Philippians 4:12).
• Pray that God will show you what it means to truly know God, a knowledge not just of right belief but of right actions, to do what is right and just and to defend the cause of the poor and needy.

Luke 12:48b


From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

• Remember that "your" possessions are really gifts from God, and that God has chosen you to steward these gifts. Thank God for entrusting you with these gifts.
• Jesus spoke this verse to define what it meant to be a faithful and wise steward. Ask God to shape your identity as a steward, rather than an owner, of all that God has entrusted to you.
• Ask God what you are to do with what God has entrusted to you.

Luke 3:7-11
John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “...Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.... “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

• As we consider all that God has done for we who didn't deserve it, pray for a spirit of repentance and gratitude.
• Ask that God would shape your gratitude into generosity.
• Ask that God would teach us this kind of sacrificial sharing with those in need.