Give What You Have To Jesus

In my posting yesterday I wrote about the first of a 4-step process seen in Jesus miracle of feeding the multitude as to how to pass out this fish and the bread - how to to ministry - today. Step one was to start with what you have. Today we see step 2 in this process for ministry effectiveness which is to GIVE WHAT YOU HAVE TO JESUS!

Yesterday we saw how the disciples went to Jesus and advised him to send the people (some 15,000 to 25,000 of them) away so they could find food. Jesus responded by saying, "We don't need to send them away - you guys feed them!" The disciples quickly countered with, "But all we have are 5 small barley loaves and a couple teeny-tiny fish!" Jesus next words as recorded n Matthew 14:18 stun me. He simply says,

"Bring them (the fish and loaves) here to me."

The part about that which stuns me is the fact that Jesus had to actually tell them to bring what they had to Him. Remember that by this time His disciples had been following Jesus for almost 2 years. They had seen Him perform a very minimum of 17 amazing miracles including turning water into wine; healing every sort of disease; catching a great number of fish; casting out demons; calming a storm; and even raising the dead! And yet, He had to tell them to bring what they had to Him. Wouldn't you think that they would have realized for themselves that the very best thing to do with whatever they had, no matter how small or insignificant it was, would be to give it to Jesus?

But WAIT! Aren't we just like them? Seriously! Yesterday I encouraged you to make a list of all that you had. Now go back and look at that list. Look at each item on the list. Here is my question. Have you given your list to Jesus? Have you given each item on the list to your Lord?

Have you given your spouse, kids and grand-kids to the Lord?

Have you given your job to the Lord?

Have you given your house, boat, cottage, camper to the Lord?

Have you given your money, investments, credit cards to the Lord?

Have you given your time, talents, hobbies to the Lord?

You see, if we are going to do effective ministry today we must start with what we have and then take what we have and give it to Jesus. As He said to the disciples, He is saying to us yet today:

"Bring them here to me!"