The King in a Cardboard Box Opening Prayer Poverty and homelessness are on the rise in the United States. In 2024, over 771,000 people were counted homeless across the nation. That’s an 18% increase year over year. In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with all of our technology, natural resources, and freedoms, there shouldn’t be a single person without a home. Poverty and homelessness plague the United States as it does other countries around the world. It is a clear sign of sin, suffering, and abuse, as people struggle to survive in unthinkable places. One question many people ask is, “If God is so loving, and all powerful, why is there so much suffering and pain in the world? Why can’t He just snap His fingers and poverty, and homelessness disappear?” This seems like a very metaphysical or philosophical question, until you are sleeping on hard concrete. We often want to question the motive behind God’s sovereign will in our lives. Why does He allow people to experience poverty, or pain, or sickness, or death? The Bible has rich and nuanced answers to these hard questions, but you must be willing to listen. Every single Christian should have their faith settled on these questions, because our faith should drive our obedience to the Lord. Listen to the words of Jesus to His disciples, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:31-40
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