Honoring True Widows

If you have your Bibles tonight, please turn with me to 1 Timothy 5 as we continue through our series in the evening, this letter from Paul to Timothy, 1 Timothy 5.  We’ll be looking at verses 1 through 16.

“Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.  Honor widows who are truly widows.  But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.  She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even when she lives.  Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach.  But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

“Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.  But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.  Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.  So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, and manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.  For some have already strayed after Satan.  But if any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them.  Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are truly widows.”

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer. 

Father, we come to You now in need of Your help, so send us Your Spirit that we may see Your will in Your Word.  Shape us, conform us into the image of Christ more and more.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.   

Have you ever had a question that you absolutely had to ask?  You were at the end of your rope, you had no discernible way of answering the question on your own and so you go and you find a friend or a family member or a mentor or a counselor or someone that you think, yes, this person has the answer.  All I need to do is ask them this one very simple, very direct question and they will give me the answer.

So have you ever asked someone a question and then maybe not gotten the answer that you exactly expected?  Or maybe you got the answer but let’s just say it was a rather indirect answer.  Often it seems that for so many of us we can ask these very simple questions and sometimes we run into people who like to give very longwinded, indirect answers telling stories to illustrate this very simple point, when often you and I just need to know yes or no.  Doesn’t it seem so often that in situations where we need immediate help or answers that we find ourselves asking the one person who both knows the answer and who also likes to take the long way to get there.  It’s almost as if asking direct questions can entice some to give very indirect answers.

When needing a straightforward path, sometimes we get a circuitous response.  It does seem as if this is a thing in our day and age.  I came across one Reddit thread entitled “How do I stop my dad from going into longwinded stories every time we talk?”  The writer says, for instance, if I were to ask him what he wanted to order for from a pizza place, he would somehow tie the response into a longwinded story about his friend was a pizza delivery driver in college.   One article I came across even asked the question, “Is telling longwinded stories genetic?”  I don’t know; maybe, maybe not.  Maybe all of us at one time or another were in need of real genuine advice and instead we got a few appetizers before the main dish was eventually revealed.

Well, I don’t know this to be true at all, but one can imagine, and maybe I could imagine myself in Timothy’s shoes, and maybe Timothy might have felt this way with Paul in this letter.  Maybe Timothy had a very simple, practical question for Paul about their widow care program in Ephesus and instead of a simple, quick response, he got an epistle in return.  Maybe in our modern day and age he sent a text and he saw those little dots just circulating and circulating and circulating until he got paragraph after paragraph after paragraph and Timothy’s like this is all I was looking for, Paul.  Just scrolling down, finally chapter 5, the answer to what do we do with widows.

Timothy, having gotten the letter back from Paul, you can imagine maybe he began to read it and you can almost see him start to wonder, when is he going to address my very specific, very practical question?

Now I say this, it is speculation, but I say this because it does seem that Timothy may have been in over his head on a few church issues and was in need of very direct, specific help.  If you’ve been with us during this evening service, you will know that this is not the first time that Paul seems to be helping Timothy with a very specific problem.  Timothy is dealing with all manners of challenges and threats to the church, most of them have to do with leading people in the church who are older than him, his elders, his deacons, older men and women, widows.

And just by virtue of the length of Paul’s response here concerning widows in the church, it’s apparent that this was another place that Timothy was desperately needing help, advice.  It can be easy sometimes to read these epistles, these letters, and lose the context from time to time because so much of these epistles do have modern-day relevance to us, but it is important to remember that we are back here with a young pastor, trying his very best to lead his church, with men and women who are much older than him.

Paul’s response is not a simple one.  It’s full of nuance, it’s very contextual, specific to Timothy and to Ephesus.  So we’ll try to break this down first by looking at what’s the context, so what does the Bible say about widow care in general.  How does that intersect with what is happening in this church in Ephesus.  We’ll then try to understand the content of what Paul is saying, specifically what does he mean by honoring true widows?  What’s meant by honoring true widows?  Then finally we’ll draw a few applications for us today, asking the questions what does this mean for me, what does this mean for the church, and what does this teach us about God?

We’ll look at the context, the content, and then finally draw a few applications.

So first, the context.  What is happening in this passage?

Well, it is very clear that there are questions around care of widows in the Ephesian church.  Throughout the pages of Scripture, widows have been given a great deal of attention and priority.  Commentators point out that there is a rich tradition of God’s special care for widows amongst His people.

All throughout the Old Testament, evildoers are repeatedly said to have taken advantage of widows.  Job 24:3 – they drive away the donkey of the foulest, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge (that is, the wicked). 

Psalm 94 – the wicked, they crush Your people, O Lord, and afflict Your heritage.  They kill the widow and the sojourner and murder the fatherless. 

Isaiah 10 – Woe to those who turn aside the needy from justice and rob the poor of My people of their right, that widows may be their spoil and that they may make the fatherless their prey.     

Indeed, when the nation of Israel turned away from serving God and obeying His commandments, who was it often that suffered?  It was often the widows in the community who were among the first casualties.  We see that in Jeremiah 22, elsewhere in Ezekiel 22.

And conversely, care for widows was often seen to be an indication of spiritual vitality and righteousness.  Deuteronomy 16 shows that widows are to be included in the full participation of the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. 

These Old Testament themes of widow care are repeated in the New Testament.  Many of you probably know James 1:27 – religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep one’s self unstained from the world.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s own ministry was one that demonstrated great care for widows.  We see this in Luke 7 where Jesus raises a widow’s son from the dead.  He referred to them often in His teachings, particularly we can think of Luke 18 and the parable of the persistent widow.  The New Testament Church then demonstrates this great value for widows as we read in Acts 6.  A report comes to the disciples that the Greek widows were being neglected by the Hebrews and the office of deacon emerges to rightly care for widows in the Church.

The context of biblical history has no shortage of attention given to the care of widows.  So given this theme throughout Scriptures, it is not a surprise that the church in Ephesus was continuing to seek to care for widows who were part of their congregation.  As Paul then and Timothy now became aware of their material needs, they sought to make it incumbent upon the church to care for widows in their hour of need.

You can see this in verse 3 with Paul’s initial instructions.  He says to do what?  He says to honor widows.  To honor widows meant more than just paying them respect, meant more than just being kind and pleasant to them, using your manners.  It was likely also that the Church was to provide for widows’ needs.  And the Ephesian church seemed to have taken this so seriously that they seem to have developed almost an official widow care program.  Verse 9 describes not permitting widows who were less than 60 years old to be enrolled, or put on the support list.  So there was some formality and intentionality to the care of widows that had developed in the Church.

But it’s not hard for us to see the challenge in understanding these verses.  Paul’s pretty clear when he says that some widows are actually not true widows.  That’s strange.  That seems odd.  Back to verse 3 – honor widows who are truly widows.  Well, gee, Paul, that sounds pretty harsh.  Are you implying that some widows who have genuinely lost their spouses are fake widows?  Are you saying that the pain and anguish of losing a spouse could in some way disqualify them from being a true widow and therefore receiving honor?

On the surface, yes, this is a difficult passage for us to comprehend, so it is important for us to give careful attention to the context in which Paul was writing.

I am no expert on the first century, but it is not a stretch to see the difference between Paul’s day in the first century Roman Empire and ours 20 centuries later.  It is highly doubtful that anyone in Ephesus had a 401k or the type of financial security blankets that are common in our day and age.  In the Greco-Roman world a woman’s social status, her identity, her financial security, were all tied into her husband, without which she was greatly dependent on the generosity of others.

In addition, again, it is not a stretch of the imagination to see the vast differences in medical care in the first century and ours today.  Life expectancy in the first century Roman Empire was somewhere between 40 and 50 and that is only if we exclude the high rates of child mortality.  So the presence of widows was likely far more common today, far more common then than it is today, especially among those under 60.

Add to that the likely exemplary job that the church was doing in caring for the widows compared to the rest of the community, and it was quite possible that there were a very high number of widows that the church was caring for.   Verse 11 through 15 makes it seem as if there was even the possibility that the church was caring for widows in the community who may not have been members of the church or even genuine followers of Christ.

So here we have the early church with limitations around its resources and a high number of needs in the community.  Young Timothy could have been at a loss as to what to do.  Paul, what do I do?  What do I do about caring for all of our people?  How do I meet all of these needs?  I don’t want to be insensitive, Paul, I want to adhere to what the Scriptures teach, but I don’t know what to do.

You can see maybe Timothy might have thought that.  Maybe that thought might have run through his mind as a young pastor.

And that’s where Paul provides an outline of how to think about the care for widows in their church.  Who are the widows who are truly in need of help?  That’s what Paul’s trying to get to.  And therefore we need to think about what are the qualifications for a widow to receive aid from the church.

So what is a true widow according to Paul?  That’s what he says in verse 2.  He says honor true widows.  Paul recognizes three types of widows in our passage.  First, Paul says there are widows who should rely on their family for provision.  Second, there are widows who are younger and shouldn’t be in need of church assistance.  Finally, there are true widows who have been left all alone.  Let’s look at all three very quickly.

First, Paul addresses widows who have family.  Verse 4 – but if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

Paul says that if a widow still has family around, it is really their responsibility to care for them first, not the church’s.  In fact, in verse 8, Paul is so strong about this point that he says if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied his faith, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. 

This was a common expectation not only in Judaism and in the Church but in the broader Greco-Roman society of the day.  It was first the responsibility of the family to provide and care for widows.  

Second type of widow, Paul tells Timothy there are widows who are younger and should not be admitted into the church assistance program quite yet.  Rather, they should seek to remarry and to bear children.  Now this is not a universal command but rather a practical one that Paul suggests.  He sees the potential for younger widows who are on church assistance to become unnecessarily dependent upon the church.  There’s the potential for such a person to become an idler, someone who is lazy or slothful.  That could lead to gossiping and unnecessary meddling.

Now is Paul saying that all young widows are idlers and lazy gossips, busybodies?  No, he’s not.  But he is saying that it’s not helpful for these widows to become financially dependent on the church when there are still possibilities ahead of them.

Finally, Paul says that true widows are those who have been left all alone.  That is, they are left without family to support them and that are not at an age where it is reasonable to think about starting over.  True widows are those who have a discernible financial and material need that can only be filled by means of church assistance.

But notice that there are also spiritual qualifications for these true widows.  It’s not just her financial and material needs, but it’s her spiritual qualities that set her apart as a true widow.  She is one who has set her hope on God, for who else in the world would care for her?  She has no husband, no children, no means of provision.  It’s unlikely that the government would meaningfully care for her.  No, without God there would be no hope.  So she is a praying woman, making supplication day and night.

So many of us struggle with prayer because we have no idea of what it means to be truly desperate, but the widow, where else can she turn but God?  What else can she do but pray?

Paul gives further qualifications for these true widows in need.  She was the wife of one husband.  She has a good reputation.  She brought up her children.  She showed hospitality.  She cared for the sick.  She devoted herself to good works.  These are the spiritual qualities of true widows.  These are the women who need the church’s support.  These are women who are deserving of the church’s honor.

If you think about all three groups that Paul addresses, we actually see them bear out the lives of Ruth and Naomi back in the Old Testament.  Naomi loses her husband and for 10 years she is dependent on her two sons and their wives.  She is a widow whose family supported her.  Eventually both of her sons die, so Naomi seeks to return to Israel, to maybe find help from God’s people in a dire situation.  She implores her two daughters-in-law not to refrain from marrying because they are still able to bear children and restart a life.

But what does Naomi say about herself?  She says do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.  I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.

She is one who is truly alone.  One who is truly in need of assistance financially and materially.  Now we know that Ruth ends up clinging to Naomi and eventually finds Boaz, so we see that Naomi was first able to depend on her family, that Ruth was able to remarry, and Naomi in her older age was dependent upon God’s people for care.

Here Paul writes to Timothy with practical ministry advice, and in doing so he helps Timothy prioritize the limited resources that the church has to minister and care for those in the church who are truly needy.  And it’s important to remember that Paul is not giving Timothy advice or counsel on how to approach and care for grieving widows.  If he were, much of what he writes would rightly be seen as insensitive, inappropriate at the time.  Rather, it’s important to note that he’s helping Timothy discern the best measures of stewardship for his church.

This is much of what our deacons do today.  They use spiritual discernment to know when and how and who to care for.  They create criteria and qualifications for who is eligible to receive church assistance.  Without these measures of discernment, those who are truly in need would not be able to receive the care afforded by the church.

As Paul says at the end of verse 16, let the church not be burdened so that it may care for those who are truly widows.  Timothy’s church was bearing too great a burden in caring for widows whose families should have been caring for them.  The church was bearing too great a burden in providing for women who still had the opportunity to start their lives over.  It seems as if the church was bearing too great a burden in providing assistance for those outside the covenant community, those who were not spiritually qualified, and therefore the widows who were truly needing assistance were unable to receive it.  Paul gives Timothy wise, practical ministry advice for leading his church.         

So what are we to do with this?  What are we to do with Paul’s instructions to Timothy?  Are they meant for us to be carried out in our present day and age here at Christ Covenant Church?  Do we look to 1 Timothy 5 as a manual for widow care?  Well, I think in some ways yes and other ways maybe not exactly.

Yes, in the principle that Paul lays out, the principle that is consistent throughout Scripture, is this is, yes, how we should carry out Paul’s instructions.  The diligent care of widows in the church, the principle that Paul lays out, these widows who have financial and material needs, the church should seek to care for them as they do in the church of Ephesus.  Churches that are not intentional to care for widows in their congregation are not being faithful to the Scriptures.  Churches should absolutely seek to follow the principles behind the instructions that Paul gives to Timothy.

But also maybe not exactly.  Maybe there’s not an exact one-to-one correlation between Paul and Timothy’s age and our own.  Because the practices that Paul instructs Timothy might have some nuances and some differences based on context.

For example, the age marker of 60 could be different in a different context based on a number of different cultural or contextual factors.  So we should not feel constrained to do exactly what Paul prescribed for Timothy and the church in Ephesus.  The Church today should seek to follow the principle that Paul lays forth while thinking to care about the specific practices, procedures, and programs that it employs to properly care not just for the widows in our midst but for all of those who are truly in need.

Yes, we should follow the principles, but the practices we might want to think carefully about in our own context.

So I want to conclude our time by giving consideration to how these principles might impact you and me today.  We’ll ask three questions:  What does this passage of Scripture mean for me?  What does it mean for our church?  What does this teach us about God?

First.  What does this passage of Scripture mean for me?

Well, it’s pretty easy to give this passage a cursory read and conclude that unless I’m a widow, this really isn’t that useful for me.  It’s really not that relevant for me.  Maybe it is for deacons and certain church leaders, but maybe not for the rest of us.

But I think there’s more to it than that.  What about those who aren’t directly connected to widows?  That’s where I want to draw our attention back to verse 8.  I read it earlier, but I’ll read it one more time, verse 8:  But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Those are strong words from Paul.  Those who do not provide for their household have denied the faith, are worse than unbelievers.  Paul is clear that Christians are to be responsible for the care of their family.  Now we have been talking very specifically about widows, but this verse I think actually has a much broader scope and appeal than just widows, though they for sure may be in view.  Christian sons and daughters have a spiritual obligation to provide care for their entire household, and it is right for us to note that there should be special attention given to the care of our aging parents and grandparents based on the surrounding verses.

In an age of retirement benefits, Social Security, estate trust and more, there can be the illusion of safety nets all around for our aging family members.  Indeed, we can be thankful for many of these things, but Paul’s instructions to provide I think are meant to be a little bit broader than just financially.  Aging parents and grandpa, they may find themselves not needing the same financial assistance as those in the first century, though some inevitably will. 

Today, many may find themselves, what they may find themselves in need of, is the gift of time and attention and interest and conversations and walks together.  Often what provision is needed the most today is relational investment and care.  In the study by the National Library of Medicine, the two most common forms of mistreatment of elderly today were neglect, that is relational and emotional, and financial exploitation.

My grandmother lives in a nearby senior adults community and recently my wife became friends with one of the program directors and they asked if we would bring our kids over for a simple trick or treat, just to engage with my grandmother and some of the community members.  Now I wasn’t there, I had some other obligations, but I’m sure it was such a joy for those seniors to get a knock on their door and to have a gaggle of kids say “trick or treat.”  They came back with way too much candy.  So thank you, senior adults.

It was a small but meaningful way to provide for the needs of our family and our broader community.

Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, the way that we care for our families is a witness to the watching world around us.  It is a way to testify to the goodness of God and to His grace in our lives when we seek to care for widows in our household, for if we cannot adequately care for our own family as an expression of thanksgiving to God, what does that say about our faith?

Personally, I can testify that my father has been an exemplary example of this as a positive expression of verse 8.  Losing his father almost 25 years ago, I’ve seen him care for his mother 25 years as she approaches 90.  And over the years I’ve seen him, yes, have those conversations about estate and ensuring the right medical care, advice on where to live and being proactive to get into the right community.  And all these things have been wonderful gifts.

But I bet one of the things that has sustained our Nana the most has been some of the simple Sunday night dinners and trips to go get ice cream.  It is likely that these have been some of the sweetest gifts.

What it means to provide for your household will look different from your neighbor, but we would do well to heed the warning that Paul gives us in verse 8.

Second.  What does this mean for the Church? 

I want to suggest two applications.  The first and most obvious application is that the Church is to take serious its care of widows.  And by the vantage point that the Lord has given me, I’m very grateful for the testimony of Christ Covenant Church, the testimony that we show to the world in caring for our widows.  Whether it’s a vibrant senior adults’ ministry or the careful attention that our deacons give, or middle and high school students who serve widows over Seek the City.  There are many, many testimonies of our church’s care for those who need it the most in our congregation. 

If I could, I’d like to give special attention to maybe an unseen ministry of our church.  You may not realize it, but every Sunday different groups of members from Christ Covenant go to another senior adults community, the senior adult community of Carmel Place, to preach and teach and lead a small worship service for those who are homebound or unable to attend church in person, or for those who are still curious about the faith.

These are some of our ruling elders and interns, our retired pastors, lay people in our church, that give of their time to honor true widows.  They honor them with their time, and their investment, their spiritual care.  Again, my wife had the chance to visit one of these services a few weeks ago and came back so encouraged that our church was caring for one of the most neglected communities.  That Sunday one of our ruling elders was leading in worship, other members were leading in song and music.  This morning I could testify that another one of our interns was ministering there, and this is a ministry that is yielding great spiritual fruit.

I was on the phone with Pastor Bruce this week and he told me not long ago there was a widow who professed faith in Christ for the first time, and one of our members at the age of I believe 97 was beginning to disciple this new believer in Christ.

Churches should be diligent about the care of widows.

Second.  Churches should be strategic about their care.  Though God’s resources are limitless, every church has a limited pool of resources.  Not every perceived need can be met or should be met, and Paul lays out for us a criteria of who should receive care.  It does not have to be the same in every single church, but churches should give diligent attention and concern for how they steward their resources.

Questions like who should we consider, how should we consider the need, what portion of our budget should we allocate to this need, who should we prioritize.  What questions needs to be asked?  These are not just questions for a boardroom, these are deeply spiritual matters.

If the church seeks to meet every need, then those who are most in need will not receive the support they require.

What does this mean for the church?  First, churches should be diligent about the spiritual material care of our widows.  Second, churches should be strategic about the financial provision they are able to provide.

One commentator reminds us that it is the church’s sacred responsibility to care for those family who are in need of care in our congregation, and I’m happy to report that I believe that’s the case at Christ Covenant Church and I’m very grateful for that.

Finally.  What does this teach us about God?  Well, friends, I think it’s abundantly clear that our God cares deeply about the most vulnerable among us.  He cares deeply about widows in distress.  He cares deeply for those without any hope in this world and He’s commissioned the Church to care for, to provide for, and to protect the widow.

If you have your Bibles, I’d like us to flip over to Psalm 68.  Psalm 68.  As we conclude with a few final thoughts about what this teaches us about God.  Psalm 68.  Psalm 68 is set in the context of war and battle, of enemies who would threaten God’s people.  Look at verse 1.

God shall arise, His enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate Him shall flee before Him!  As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!

So we see in verse [sic] 68 that God is victorious over His enemies, scattering them, watching them flee, driving them away, watching them as wax helplessly melts before the fire. 

We see God’s people rejoicing in verse 3 and 4:  But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!  Sing to God, sing praises to His name; lift up a song to Him who rides through the deserts; His name is the Lord; exult before Him.

So in response to a victorious battle, God’s people praise His name, they exult, they’re jubilant with joy over the victory and the battle won.  They sing praises to Him.

Then look at the description of God in verse 5 and 6.  Who is our God?  He’s the Father of the fatherless, the protector of widows is God in His holy habitation.  God settles the solitary in a home.

In the midst of a great battle and the victory won, God does not forget the most vulnerable.  He’s the Father to the fatherless, He’s the protector of widows.  Other translations describe Him as the defender of widows.  Our God is a God who will protect those who need protection, provide for those who need provision, and preserve those in need of preservation.

When no one else will come to their cause, God will step in because He is their defender.

Makes me think of the great 90s NBA basketball center Dikembe Mutombo, who recently passed away.  He was famous not only for being a great defender but after a block, what would he do?  He would wag his finger in his opponent’s face and say, “Not today, not in my house.” 

You think of the numerous existential threats posed to widows, especially in the day and age of Ephesus, and every single one of them, the defender of the widow would block and say “not today, not in my house, not for my children,” because God is the defender of the widow.

But He does more than that.  Verse 6 says that He settles the solitary in a home.  He does more than just ward off threats.  He takes the lonely and He places them in a home.  He takes them from their place of isolation and loneliness and solitude and He gives them a place and He gives them a community.  He gives them a family.

Could there be a greater gift to the solitary than to be placed in a home?  And we see this in the Church today.  Those who have no family are welcomed into the family of God.  Those who have no siblings around them anymore have brothers and sisters in Christ.  Those who have no place to go to share a meal with can come and find a home here in the church of Jesus Christ.  Our God is a God who defends the widow and places her in a home.

Is that not what He did for Naomi?  Naomi who was so broken as to change her name to bitter at the beginning of the story, came to see and experience personally God as the defender of the widow, for God did not leave her without a redeemer.  He did not leave her for dead as she suggested that He would in chapter 1.  Instead, God was the restorer of life, the nourisher in her old age, all that Naomi needed He provided for and more.

The widow holds a special place in God’s heart, so special that Church historians think there is good reason to believe that Jesus’s own mother Mary became a widow during Jesus’s childhood.  We don’t exactly know when Joseph passed, but there is no mention of him in Jesus’s ministry like there is Mary throughout the gospels.  The earthly mother of Jesus was left all alone and yet so special are widows that He placed His own son in the care of one.

Friends, you and I should marvel at the goodness and the kindness and the gentleness of our God towards those who need Him most.  Though you may be forgotten in this world, God has not and will not forget you.  Though it may seem as if you have no protection, God has promised to be your defender, and although it may seem as if there is no hope, God is the one in whom you can set your hope on, both now and forevermore.     

Let’s pray.  Lord God, we thank You for this Word, thank You that You are our defender, our protector.  You provide for those who are in need of provision.  You preserve those who are in need of preservation.  We thank You for the example and the testimony in Scriptures that we see time and time again of You caring for widows.  We pray for ourselves personally that we would care for widows in need, especially those in our families.  We pray for our church, that Christ Covenant would always be a place to honor true widows.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.