If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
Proverbs 25:21
When your stomach growls, you want food. When your mouth is dry, you want water. When you have an injury, you seek healing. When you break something important, you work to restore it. For any want or need we have, we are quick to find a solution. We are made to lift our heads up and continue marching forward. We have an innate hardwiring to protect and take care of ourselves.
However, so many times we are quick to work alone, and we do not turn to the One who can do all things. The one who can feed us, quench our thirst, heal our wounds, and find solutions in our lives. I have definitely been in situations when turning to God for help is not my first course of action. I try to fix it myself or rationalize the situation. The beauty in Christ’s gift of life to us, is we do not have to do it alone! He has overcome all the hunger, thirst, pain, and brokenness.
The greatest way to live out this love God gives us is to be His hands and feet. When someone is hungry, give him food. When someone is thirsty, give him drink. When someone is hurting, help him. Now God does not call us to only help those we like or love. He has called us to help everyone. Even our enemies are covered by the love of God. To truly be His hands and feet, we need to love all people and help support those around us. God can work through us and with us, if only we turn to Him and trust in Him and listen to Him. His word says in Proverbs 25:21, If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty give him water to drink.
The best way to live out this verse is to treat others the way you want to be treated. We hear this “Golden Rule” often, but do we stop to think about how we can actually put it into practice? Do we also extend this idea to those we don’t know? What if I took time in the Word of God to figure out how I can put His words into practice in my own life? How amazing that in this time of Lent, we can be the hands and feet of Jesus to help others around us and point them to the Almighty first and foremost. As God works through us, our actions speak volumes to those who might not hear our words.
Amanda Serocke ’09, M.Ed. ’14