Abolishing Poverty - no we can't!

After blogging my post last night, I had a few additional thoughts and great insights from my dad. While I believe we can make a serious dent in this world to make wrongs right, I don't think abolishing poverty will be possible. Here are some thoughts on why we can't...

• Jesus said that we will always have the poor among us. I don't understand that completely, but I know it has something to do with our sin, broken world, and what the poor have to teach us about the Kingdom of God.
• Scripture says that poverty rains on the just and the unjust alike.
  
• God blesses who he blesses and if it happens to be you, then you should be grateful and respond like God called Abraham. You are blessed to be a blessing to others!
• Poverty is caused by more than the affluent hoarding their resources. It's also caused by: corrupt governments, laziness, bad decisions, generational sin, mental illnesses, greedy corporations, lack of education and opportunities, etc. Obviously, that's where some social justice comes into play, but it's not just affluence that causes poverty.
• If you are affluent, you have a responsibility to make justice changes in this world because we have a just God.
• If you are affluent, you have to remember that what you have is not yours. Everything is God's. He gives and takes away...for reasons I'll never fully understand.

I hope that better rounds out my thoughts on poverty and affluence. May God give us all wisdom, discernment, and a steel-spine to live like we were created...