Half the world, around three billion people, live on less than two dollars a day. About a billion people are illiterate and unable to sign their names. Around 800 million people are chronically undernourished. 30,000 children under the age of five die each day due to poverty. That is 210,000 per week or 11 million per year. Over a billion people have no access to clean water, 2 billion have no access to electricity, and half the world’s population have no access to sanitation. The numbers are just so large that it is impossible to see how you could make any significant impact on the problems.
But in God’s economy, a very small amount can stretch a long way. Mark chapter 6 describes an occasion on which the only resources which the disciples could scrounge together amounted to five loaves and two fish. Jesus took those and stretched them to feed 5,000 men, with 12 baskets full of leftovers being taken up at the end. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so resources are no problem to him.
When you’re not yet doing anything to help others, your ability to make a difference often seems pretty small. But when you start doing something for the poorest of the poor, when you put your heart into it, you are doing something which God smiles on and your resources miraculously seem to grow. Maybe you will meet other like-minded people who will add their money to yours. Maybe you will find higher paying employment. This isn’t a scheme for you to get rich. It’s simply an opportunity for you to experience God’s momentum when you start to become the person God designed you to be.