{"id":529,"date":"2023-03-14T16:12:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/?p=529"},"modified":"2023-04-07T16:13:34","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T16:13:34","slug":"why-a-personal-faith-in-god-is-an-essential-asset-in-reducing-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/2023\/03\/14\/why-a-personal-faith-in-god-is-an-essential-asset-in-reducing-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a personal faith in God is an essential asset in reducing poverty<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following biblical principles can be good for your family\u2019s finances. And there\u2019s academic research from some of the best universities in the world to prove it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, researchers from Yale University, the London School of Economics and Northwestern University investigated the links between faith in God and a subsequent decline in poverty. The economists\u2019 research<\/a> concluded that families in the Philippines who attended classes on Christian values and theology saw their household income significantly increase while a control group who didn\u2019t receive religious instruction did not reap a bump in income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lead researcher, Yale University finance professor James Choi, said the rise in income might be attributed to Christian teaching on overcoming hardships. Study participants may have thought, \u201cI can pull through this because God is watching over me, and He has a plan for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such findings aren\u2019t new or surprising for the team at Shepherd Community Center, where faith is a personal God is the first of 10 assets<\/a> essential for breaking the cycle of generational poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Bible teaches us that we have hope for today and tomorrow,\u201d Shepherd Executive Director Jay Height said. \u201cAs Christians, we have a clear purpose and a bright future. So, we can learn to look beyond our current circumstances and to persevere in school, at work and in our families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope and perseverance are key attributes for overcoming setbacks at work, in school and at home. And with hope comes the emotional and mental energy to plan for a brighter future, even when current circumstances are hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo many of our neighbors have bought into the lie that they are so broken that God couldn\u2019t love them,\u201d Height said. \u201cThey believe the lie that, \u2018If they really knew, they couldn\u2019t love me.\u2019 Jesus deals with that and says, \u2018I know you. I created you. And I love you.\u2019 Understanding that gives people the fortitude to move forward and to understand that somebody understands them and wants the best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shepherd, of course, is a Christ-centered ministry and that fact shapes every program and every service that the organization offers. But how does that relate directly to efforts to reduce poverty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s compassion and there\u2019s feeling sorry for,\u201d Height said. \u201cCompassion is of God and feeling sorry for is a perversion of that. The difference between compassion and sympathy is distance. Compassion draws me near you, and together we can overcome. It\u2019s relational.  Feeling sorry for is when I pass a guy on the sidewalk and drop a quarter in his bucket. I\u2019m not making a connection with him. Christ modeled for us how to make connections, and we want to do that at Shepherd. We want to build relationships, not just programs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following biblical principles can be good for your family\u2019s finances. And there\u2019s academic research from some of the best universities in the world to prove it. In 2020, researchers from Yale University, the London School of Economics and Northwestern University investigated the links between faith in God and a subsequent decline in poverty. The economists\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-shepherd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}