But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33There is a story preceding Jesus walking on water, about Jesus feeding five thousand with a few loaves and fishes.
But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Matthew 14:16-18Initially Jesus gives us gifs and the things we have, but until we surrender and lay them at his feet, He cannot use them to feed the thousands. What loaves and fishes have I yet to bring to Him? He freely gives me my life, but not just for myself. It is easy for us to get caught up in ourselves and believing what we have is for the benefit of ourselves, but how much could we give of our lives if we let go of the burden and allow Jesus to perform the miracle. He does not ask us to solve the world's hunger, he just asks the disciples to bring Him something to work with. The gift is not our gifts themselves, but in the experience of handing them over to Jesus and trusting Him to use them for His glory, not our own.
What does that look like for us right now?
Personally, it is recognizing how pride has deceivingly caused me to believe I have little or nothing to give. I can relate to the disciples when they approach Jesus with a measly five loaves and two fish...they must be thinking "Wow, this is nothing and definitely not enough to feed five thousand people! There is no way we can even attempt to feed all these people."
How immature and prideful of us to limit God and believe He cannot do the impossible. Once again, our lack of belief in God's power inhibits not only us, but God Himself...how much more could we do for the Kingdom if we truly believed in God's power to work through measly humans like us? We cannot pretend to know how God uses us, but we can surrender our lives in complete faith knowing he does use us. We have been equipped with many gifts and have no right to deserve any praise for anything, but Jesus has every right to use us, we are His. Serve the least of your brothers when they are hungry, thirsty or need something to wear. The hardest part for me is trying to feed those who do not recognize their own hunger, but then recognizing I fall into that category also.
