The day’s materials
Welfare, Poverty and Family Support
For Just Welfare Systems
Deuteronomy 15:7-11
Old Testament
If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need, which he lacks. Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing; and he cry to the LORD against you, and it be sin to you. You shall surely give, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because it is for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you put your hand to. For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command you to surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.
2 Corinthians 8:13-15
New Testament
For this is not that others may be eased and you distressed, but for equality. Your abundance at this present time supplies their lack, that their abundance also may become a supply for your lack, that there may be equality. As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
Deuteronomy does not allow a hard-hearted shrug. If there is a poor person among you, do not be tight-fisted. Open your hand wide. The text assumes that poverty will appear, and it commands a posture: generosity that does not wait for the needy to become more palatable.
Paul speaks of the same posture in the life of the churches. He is not calling for one group to be crushed so that another can be comfortable. “Your abundance at the present time should supply their need.” He imagines a kind of fairness shaped by the wilderness story: the one who gathered much had nothing left over, and the one who gathered little had no lack.
To pray for welfare is to pray for a common life where people are not punished for being poor. Where support is not designed to exhaust. Where the open hand is translated into lawful protection, decent provision, and help that does not humiliate.
Lord, make your people open-handed. Where our hearts have grown hard, soften us. Where our public conversations become harsh, teach us mercy. And where systems need repair, grant wisdom and courage to seek justice with humility, remembering that we are heirs in Christ and also subjects under your holy rule.
Prayer points
- Lord, soften hard hearts; teach us open-handed generosity and neighbourly attention
- Provide for families facing hunger, eviction, debt, or insecurity; give relief and stable support
- Grant wisdom to those shaping welfare policy and administration; protect them from cruelty and from fear
- Guard the vulnerable from humiliation and exhaustion; let support be accessible, fair, and honest
- Teach the Church to share resources with joy; to supply need without pride and to receive without shame
- Give us humility to seek justice together; and courage to repair what harms the poor