Seven Steps to Helping Others that Jesus Taught
by Saju Varghese
1. Jesus always stopped what He was doing to help those in need. He was
constantly thronged by people, but He always found time to stop what He
was doing at the moment. This is hard for us to do because we are so
busy, but it is a lesson we must learn if we are really going to show
people we care about them.
2. Jesus always acknowledged the person he was helping. He cared enough
to do this. This is a type of how God cares about each of our needs no
matter how small when we pray to Him. We must learn to acknowledge
others who are hurting and in need of our help so we may be a good
example as ambassadors of God's love.
3. Listen to the person who needs help. You won't get very far if you
have preconceived ideas about what they need without listening. You will
miss the mark of what they really need unless you care enough to listen.
4. Look for needs, voiced and unvoiced. The need the person is bringing
to your attention may not be the need that really is driving them. We
must care enough to look beyond the obvious as Jesus did in His
ministry. Sometimes the person He was helping needed more faith beyond
what they already had, but He loved them enough to help them with all of
their needs, not just the most apparent ones.
5. Care enough, love that person enough to do something about the need
presented. Even if you can't do anything personally, you can help them
toward a solution. God does not expect us to meet every need in the
world, but He expects us to help those He sends our way.
6. In Luke 8:41-56 Jesus was on the way to help Jairus' need of healing
for His daughter. But He encountered another need along the way and
helped both the woman and Jairus toward greater faith as a result. The
point is that distractions are not always to be considered bad. They
seem like a nuisance sometimes but it could be that God has a reason for
that distraction to happen. We must be close to Him so we can see His
hand in these types of situations.
7. Give God the glory for what you do. In John 7:14-18 Jesus admonishes
us to do just that. There are other passages of scripture that teach
this also. If you notice the ministry of Jesus, He always gave His
Father the glory for what He did. We must learn from this so we can be
good examples of Christ's love.
See Also:
The Six Ghosts of Fear
There are six basic fears with which every human suffers at one time or
another. Most people are fortunate if they do not suffer from the entire
six.
Do You Operate in Fear or
Faith?
The greatest tool the enemy uses against us in life is fear, because
fear keeps us from doing many of those things we would like to do in
order to make our lives, and the lives of others, more complete and
prosperous.
Universality of Love - Love
in All Religions
The idea of the importance of love finds agreement among all of the
large, popular religions of the world. Here is a sampling.