Watching Out for One Another

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading, titled Watching Out for One Another, was written by Wynn Collier. Jose, a 77-year-old substitute teacher, had been living out of his car for eight years. Every night, the elderly man bunked down in his 1997 Ford Thunderbird LX, carefully monitoring the car battery as it powered his computer for his evening's work. Instead of using the money earmarked for rent, Jose sent it to numerous family members in Mexico who needed it more. Early every morning, one of the teacher's former students saw Jose rummaging through his trunk. I just felt I needed to do something about it, the man said.

So he launched a fundraiser, and weeks later handed Jose a check to help him pay for a place to live. Though scripture repeatedly instructs us to watch out for one another, it's sometimes difficult to see past our own concerns. The prophet Zechariah rebuked Israel who, rather than worshipping God or serving others, were feasting for themselves, ignoring their shared communal life.

They disregarded their neighbors' needs. Zechariah made God's instructions clear in Zechariah chapter 7. The people were to administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another, and not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. While it's easy to be consumed with our own needs, faithfulness calls us to tend to the needs of others.

In the divine economy, there's plenty for all, and God, in His mercy, chooses to use us to give some of that plenty to others. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Zechariah chapter 7 verses 4 through 10. Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me, Ask all the people of the land and the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really from me that you fasted?

And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled? And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah, This is what the Lord Almighty said, Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another.

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other. Let's pray. God, we want and need a wider vision, to see others and watch out for others. Give in us a care and concern for our neighbors that leads us to meet their needs where we are able, showing them how much you love them and how much you care and how you work in us to love them. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.