Do you remember the worst times in your life? Did you pray? What did you say? “Lord, help me not to waste this pain.” An older preacher friend told me he prayed this in a difficult time. We learn lessons through pain which we would rather not repeat.
Israel suffered through four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. What did they learn? Moses reminded them so that they could remember to be kind to the guests in their gates. The Israelites could have said, “We did not receive justice when we were foreigners in Egypt, so we will not offer justice to foreigners in our land.” But God called them to offer the grace they had not received as slaves. Again, Israel could have said, “No one fed us when we were foreigners,” but instead they were to leave the gleanings for the foreigners as Boaz did for Ruth when she came to Bethlehem from Moab.
How shall we treat the outsiders among us in view of what God has done for us? While we were powerless sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for us. By grace he saved us when we did not deserve it. Wouldn’t it be odd then to withhold kindness from one who did not deserve it? God has given us so much grace, forgiving us for all of our sins. God’s love is not a zero sum. We can pass grace on to others without losing any of God’s grace to us. God has forgiven us and blessed us. Remember to pass it on!
