Seeing a Need

Hello, and welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled, Seeing a Need, was written by Cindy Hess Casper. In the last few days of my dad's life, one of the nurses dropped by his room and asked me if she could give him a shave. As Rachel gently pulled the razor across his face, she explained, older men of his generation like to have a neat shave every day. Rachel had seen a need and acted on her instinct to show kindness, dignity, and respect to someone. The tender care she provided reminded me of my friend Julie, who still paints her elderly mother's nails because it's important to her mom that she look pretty. Verse nine tells us about a disciple named Dorcas, also known as Tabitha, who showed kindness by providing handmade clothing for the poor. When she died, her room was filled with friends who tearfully mourned this kind woman who loved helping others.

But Dorcas's story didn't end there. When Peter was brought to where her body lay, he knelt and prayed. In God's power, he called her name by saying, Tabitha, get up! Amazingly, Dorcas opened her eyes and rose to her feet. When her friends realized she was alive, word spread quickly through her town, and many people believed in the Lord. And how did Dorcas spend the next day of her life? Probably exactly as she had before, seeing the needs of people and filling them. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Acts chapter nine, verses thirty-six through forty-two. In Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha. In Greek, her name is Dorcas.

She was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time, she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Leda was near Joppa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Leda, they sent two men to him and urged him, please come at once. Peter went with them, and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Peter sent them all out of the room. Then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive.

This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. Let's pray. Father, please open our eyes every day to see the hurting and the needy people that you've put around us.

Open our hearts to do what we can do to show them what your love looks like. We thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening. My name is Rachelle Traube, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.