Our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others; then they will not be unproductive. TITUS 3:14 (NLT)

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“If you preach to hurting people, you will always have an audience.” The professor’s words so long ago are still true today. 

Everywhere you look, people are in need or in pain. Another hurricane is aimed at Louisiana and Mississippi. A fresh wave of COVID is spreading in a number of areas. Word came yesterday that a woman a family had been searching for over the summer and into the fall was located deceased in her car in the woods. 

Groups like Texans on Mission, also known as Texas Baptist Men, serve those in urgent need year-round. They are on the ground helping many different communities recover from hurricanes even as another one is on the way. A volunteer in one feeding unit has tested positive for COVID. The next wave of volunteers is stepping up to fill that space. 

Our friends Kim and Kelly have a grief ministry called Grief Bites. They host Facebook groups and Bible studies for those who are struggling with one form of grief or another. They have produced a number of YouVersion Bible Studies focused on this topic. Their family has experienced more grief than just about anyone I know, and yet they are among the most joyful people alive. 

There are so many urgent needs today. You and I cannot possibly help everyone. We can, however, help someone. Who can you serve? How can you give your focused attention? How much could you give financially with regularity?

Last week, the Safe Baby Sleep Council provided an online symposium aimed at working upstream from the grief of losing a baby to unnecessary and preventable death. What are the upstream ways you can serve to protect others from unnecessary grief? 

Go to Heathbrothers.com/upstream to check out ideas related to preventing some of the big problems in our world. It is good to have firefighters. It is better to have fire prevention. 

What urgent needs are you most drawn to? How can you serve the people those issues affect? How can you be part of the solution to prevent those problems? This is what gospel-shaped people do. Those who follow Jesus serve people the way Jesus served people. 

How do you pray about that urgency? How do you look at it from our Father in heaven’s perspective? 

Productive and effective lives join God in building a better world. How will you honor God and serve others today?

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I will work systematically and strategically to meet urgent needs and to prevent those problems from affecting others.

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Our Father, give us eyes to see the needs around us. Show us where we can do the most good, to help where help is really help. Empower us to provide upstream assistance to prevent unnecessary pain and suffering. Use all that we are and all that we have to build a better world. Amen.