“Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”
James 2:5
When Ken and I traveled to Cuba with our Wheels for the World team to deliver wheelchairs and Bibles, I met a fourteen-year-old girl named Isis who had a brittle bone disease. Earlier that morning, her mother had pushed her down the long dirt road in a rickety old adult-sized wheelchair with flat tires. Isis sat quietly as she watched others receive wheelchairs. She didn’t smile all day. I’m sure this little girl wasn’t so certain we would be able to give her a different or better wheelchair.
As it turned out, Isis was delighted with the sleek and streamlined little turquoise-colored wheelchair we gave her. But she was more delighted in something else. When I gave her a copy of the Bible in Spanish, she gasped with delight. Ken flipped open to the book of James and I asked her to read one verse. Isis began reading aloud the entire first chapter. Physical therapists and mechanics put down their work. Tears welled as we all listened. It was clear Isis was far happier with the gift of the Word than with her new wheels.
Perhaps God has made the poor of this world to be rich in faith, because the poor have so little. What they do have, they treasure — like Isis with her first Bible. Psalm 119:47 says, “For I delight in your commands because I love them.” Is the Word of God a place where your spirit dwells? Are your prayers peppered with verses from the Bible? Do you prefer the scriptures over other things? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God; therefore, rich faith comes from much study in His Word.
Dear Word of Life, may I treasure Your decrees and consider them precious. Increase my faith as I increase my time in the Scriptures.
