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    Provision for the Time of Need

    Both the Scriptures and the writings of Ellen White elevate to a divine mandate the Christian responsibility to protect and provide for one’s loved ones. In both faith and practice the Bible assigns prime responsibility for such care upon near relatives. Building on the authority of the fifth commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother...,” the apostle Paul stresses the importance of this principle in the strongest of terms. He wrote:SDALI 4.7

    “But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents; for that is good and acceptable before God....

    “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:4, 8).

    Jesus reinforced the same principle, referring to it as the “command of God” (Matthew 15:6).SDALI 5.1

    Repeatedly Ellen White stressed the importance of providing for future needs. Examples of such counsel include the following:SDALI 5.2

    “You might today have had a capital of means to use in case of emergency, and to aid the cause of God, if you had economized as you should. Every week a portion of your wages should be reserved, and in no case touched unless suffering actual want, or to render back to the Giver in offerings to God.

    “The means you have earned have not been wisely and economically expended so as to leave a margin, should you be sick and your family be deprived of the means... to sustain them.”—The Adventist Home, 396.

    “Had you and your wife understood it to be a duty that God enjoined upon you, to deny your taste and your desires, and make provision for the future instead of merely living for the present,...your family could have had the comforts of life.”—Testimonies for the Church 2:432.

    Throughout her lifetime Ellen White encouraged as Christian duties such practices as diligence, hard work, exercise of foresight, self-denial, and generous benevolence to the Lord’s cause. She encouraged the purchase of quality goods and the care of them. She spoke in favor of home ownership where possible, and approved the accumulation of reasonable reserves for use in necessity. She conceived of such reserves as available not only for personal needs, but also for extending the work of God and assisting those outside one’s family who experienced need. She looked favorably upon the acquisition of a modest but comfortable home for one’s retirement, and spoke of the self-respect that would follow from having provided for the future. (See Testimonies for the Church 7:291, 292.)SDALI 5.3

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