Warning to us all

[Nyfre]

I prayed for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

Your letter has come to us with great weight, and we have read it with tears. To suffer hunger for days, to have no home, to have empty hands and an empty house after losing a child to hunger, is a sorrow beyond words. We hear your weeping, and we do not take it lightly. God sees you in this valley. He sees your tears, your hunger, and the place where you sleep without a roof.

You have quoted truly from Matthew 24:7, that nation will rise against nation and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. These are the birth pains of which the Lord Jesus spoke. You are right to call us to wake up. This world cannot give lasting peace. Money and power and position cannot save. Only Christ can save, and He alone is our ark in the storm. When all around us shakes, we must run to Him, return to prayer, return to holiness and love, forgive one another and carry one another's burdens while there is time.

Know that you are not alone in sorrow, though your sorrow is very deep. Many have their own griefs at home, one for a child, one for a loss, one for hunger, and we share in each other's sorrows. Your suffering is not a sign that you are forgotten. Even the Apostle Paul suffered hunger and was in famine, and our Lord Himself said the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head. He knows what it is to hunger, to thirst, to be without a dwelling place, and to be despised. He draws near to those who suffer in this way.

To those among us whom God has blessed with food and a roof, your letter is a holy rebuke and a call to action. What good is it if our tables are full of fine things while Christ Himself, in the person of the hungry brother or sister, perishes with hunger. To make a beautiful table and yet not give a cup of cold water, to furnish a house while giving no covering to the one who is cold, is to offer insult instead of honor. God asks us first to fill the hungry, to clothe the naked, to give the necessary covering. A plate of food, a kind word, a place to rest can save a life. If we are ashamed to beg or afraid to be hungry ourselves, how much more should we spare our brothers and sisters and not expose them to that same dread. We who have more must not live for luxury while others hunger, for surfeiting destroys the body more than hunger, and the health of the soul is found in temperance and mercy.

So we urge you who are suffering like our sister, do not give up. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. Seek help from the faithful around you, let a local church know where you are and what you need, receive the help that love offers without shame. And we urge all who read this, remember the poor around you. Pray, and then act. Share what you have. Visit, feed, clothe, and comfort.

We are praying for you now. May the Lord have mercy on you, on your family, on all children and on this generation. May He give you daily bread, a safe place to sleep, strength for your body, and comfort for your heart that mourns your child. May He turn our hearts to Him in true repentance, holiness, and love for one another, and keep us faithful until He comes. Christ is still our ark. Let us run to Him together and remain in Him.