Proverbs 19 Devotional

Lending to the LORD

“Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.”Proverbs 19:17 (BSB)

The poor are easy to abandon, and Proverbs 19 notices it. Wealth draws many friends, while a poor man is shunned by his brothers, and his pleading goes unanswered (19:4, 19:7). Then comes a startling saying. Whoever is kind to the poor, it says, is making a loan to the LORD, who will pay it back (19:17). God counts himself the borrower when someone helps a person who has nothing to give in return.

That saying is not a scheme for profit. It promises something better: that no kindness to the needy goes unseen or unvalued, because the LORD takes it personally. Jesus said much the same when he described a King who receives what is done for the least of his brothers as done for himself (Matthew 25:40). The same chapter reminds readers that people make many plans, but it is the LORD's purpose that wins out (19:21). Generosity can look risky by the world's math. It is safe in the hands of a God who keeps his accounts and forgets nothing.

To think about: Who in your life has little to give back, and how could you show them kindness this week as though you were serving the Lord?