In Deuteronomy 15 & 16, God tells the children of Israel how blessed they will be when they arrive in the promised land. Exodus 15:4, "For the Lord will greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it."

God continues to discuss how the children of Israel should treat the poor. He informs them they will always have the poor among them. If God will greatly bless the children of Israel in the promised land, how will the poor be among them? It must be that those that are poor do not apply themselves.

Some of God's commands: given him sufficient for his needs, furnish him liberally out of thy flock. Always remembering that you were a bondman in Egypt.

Today, we have difficulty considering the poor. Sometimes we think of them as lazy and wasteful. I notice in my reading, God doesn't tell the children of Israel to investigate why the poor are poor, he tells them to give liberally. He told them to remember their past, and recognize how God had blessed them. He told them to give out of what God had given them.

I think when we are considering the poor today, we would be better off not considering why the poor are poor. We should consider how blessed we are. We often think our great blessing comes because of our hard labor. We need to remember, it is not how hard we have worked, but how God has blessed us. We are blessed because we put in labor. Also, we are blessed because God protected us from affliction. He did not allow the circumstances of this world to consume our goods.