In Luke 10, Jesus gives a parable of a ‘good’ Samaritan who stopped to help a man in need. A man who had been robbed of all he had and then beaten. A man who laid helpless on the road yet no one offered to help. A man who others had passed by because they “didn’t want to get involved.” You know how we do. We don’t want to get into people’s business so we allow them to lay in their mess. We don’t want to get involved so we walk pass people who are dying in front of us. We don’t want to get tangled into their lives so we turn our heads when we see their need. I’m not going to go deep into this particular scripture, now, but if you read the passage you’ll notice that it didn’t give the identity of the man just that he was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, which leads me to believe He is a Jew. This is important. The bible goes on to identify that a priest and a Levite man both passed by this distressed man without lifting a hand in need.
Yet, here comes this Samaritan who takes pity on the man. A Samaritan who didn’t fool with the Jews because the Jews didn’t mess with them. However, he goes out of his way to bandage this man’s wounds, puts him on a donkey, takes him to a nearby inn and then pays for him to stay there until he gets well. A Samaritan who by culture wasn’t fitting to even eat with. Oh but I’ve come to understand this … Helping someone isn’t about the condition or circumstance of the person in need but it’s really about the character of you whose doing the helping. This is why God will allow things to fall in front of you. God needs to test your character to see if you’re really about this life! God needs to know if you’ll really help, like you claim. God needs to see if you’ll go like you say you will. Beloved, God is simply checking to see if there’s a fire, within you, or if it’s all smoke. This is why, when it comes to helping, it is about you! God can heal, deliver, provide and set free without you but He’ll use you to manifest things simply to see if your character is worthy.
Lakisha, the Author 