How are you today? I know that some of my friends are feeling sick. Some are overwhelmed by their circumstances. Some don’t know what to do with all of the blessings that they have and feel guilty about them as well. Some don’t feel that they have anything to give but in God’s Kingdom all of you matter! All of you have something that can make a difference in someone’s life.
Do you know what your gift is? I’m not speaking of money, although some are blessed with that too. I’m speaking of life lessons for the most part. Sometimes it is hard to get those lessons across to others. Sometimes they don’t want to hear them and many times they may not take those lessons of advice to heart and put them to use. Why? Because they have a better education than you or I do or they see our advice as being from someone who doesn’t know the struggle that they are going through.
The thing is simply that God does know everything that you have been through. You might not know God as your Savior yet but sometimes those trials are what will bring you to the point of knowing God and knowing that you need Him. Each of us is blessed in the specific way that we have been working toward. Some of us have abilities and even wisdom that has come from Him that we don’t use or may not even know that we have.
We can’t see our abilities because of our distance from God and His Wisdom and His Word. Sometimes we read and study God’s Word but we are thinking of our business or something else in our life. Reading and studying God’s Word is something that takes dedicated study. Not just opening your Bible while you attend church services, but actually studying it like you did in school to pass a test. That is how you get to know God and His Wisdom that will take you through life so you can help others. What do you mean that I have to help others? Because Jesus did it. We are supposed to be and do what He did and more.
Now how am I supposed to do that? He was and is the Son of God, I can’t walk on water or heal people or feed thousands from a sack lunch! There was some bit of wisdom that my grandfather gave me and my grandmother too: Can’t never could. You are living with doubt about who you are in Christ and what He has given you to be. If you doubt anything, Biblical truth or any other truth, it will not happen! If a football team goes into the game thinking “We can’t win”, they won’t win regardless of how hard they try. We defeat our own dreams and abilities even before we begin if we start with a defeated mind!
I’m not advocating “positive thinking” but study of the Bible, quitting smoking, having a successful career in business, or even passing a test have to begin with a mind that is set on DOING and not failing! If you want God to save you, pursue Him…especially when you feel His hand of conviction on you. If you want to graduate with honors go after that goal with everything you have. Living the Christian life cannot be done by us alone but with the Holy Spirit in our heart and our determination to learn more about Him every day we can do it and live it so that others will see our life and will want the life with Christ that we have.
Jesus had been preaching to a large crowd of people, at least five thousand men not counting their families. So, in truth there were likely around fifteen thousand or more. Some people don’t believe the Bible or the stories told within its pages, yet Jesus was trying to get His message across to as many people as He could while He was teaching His followers. They had to learn from and come to know Him as the Messiah.
When He told His disciples that they should feed these people one of them said that a years wages worth of bread would only give each person enough bread to take a bite. Then Andrew found a young boy that had a lunch with him of five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus told him that it would be enough. He thanked God for their provision and blessed the food and told His disciples to distribute the food to all who were hungry.
The entire company of people were fed and the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers! When God blesses your offering, He can multiply it to fill whatever the need may be. At this time in His ministry, God filled them with enough and then some. God can do this for us today but we can’t ask for things like luxury items or a million dollars. God will take care of a need in your life when you have given a tithe or an offering of your money or your time. He may do it in your finances or in your health but He will take care of your needs.
Another way of looking at the loaves and fishes is that all around Galilee people were fishermen and depended upon the bounty of the lake to make their living. It was likely a meager living so they used barley rather than wheat to make their bread. It was cheaper and easier to grow.
We, as followers of Jesus today, should take His message with us everywhere we go. To the market, to our job, to the restaurant where we eat, everywhere we go…our faith in Jesus should show up in our daily lives. Our faith should be evident to all of those around us regardless of who they are or where we are. God knows who we may run into and who may be receptive to our message but we have to have a message to be useful to Him.
Ephesians 4:32: 32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Do you think about this? Does forgiveness cross your mind when someone else does something against you? Forgiveness is not natural for us. Asking for forgiveness is something that we do, as Christians. Even asking for forgiveness is not natural for humanity because we don’t see our flaws or our sins until the Holy Spirit shows you what you have done or said. Believe me, it is hard to catch those thoughts and sometimes the actions, if we let the thought stay long enough, because thoughts become sinful action if you allow it to take root in your mind.
It doesn’t take long. Only a few seconds and sometimes, just that fast, you will act on that thought. Sometimes, the words will spill out of your mouth before you can get them back. Once they are out there is no remedy for the hurt and pain that is caused except to ask forgiveness from the one you have wronged. Sometimes asking for forgiveness can be a slippery slope if you try to do so too soon. The pain and the hurt feelings are too raw for someone to even think about forgiving you. You may want to patch things up quickly but sometimes that could be the worst decision to make.
Forgiveness is something that is completely foreign to most in our society today. Living today with our world the way it is hard to do unless you are a Christian. Even if you are a Christian, it is hard to forgive sometimes but through the work of the Holy Spirit we can. Jesus came to provide the way for us to be reconciled with God through His blood, all we have to do is accept His sacrifice for us and repent of our sins and then follow Him and we will be in His family.
The Living Message of Christ 