Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Tues Devo: Got it, use it

Hello,

Quick writers note – this week’s is heavily inspired (stolen?) from what I heard at church this weekend.

How often do we sit and wait for God to act, before we participate? How often do we ask God to provide what we believe is enough to do what He is calling us to do?
Our role is not merely faith that God can/will – but faith that is demonstrated in action. 2 stories from the Bible illustrate this:

2 Kings 4:1-7 “Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord; and the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels at large for yourself from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get a few. And you shall go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all these vessels, and you shall set aside what is full.” So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons; they were bringing the vessels to her and she poured. When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not one vessel more.” And the oil stopped. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”” (NASB)

Matthew 14:14-21 “When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They *said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.” (NASB)

When we read the story with Elisha, we see that the widow had all she needed to pay her debts, and provide for what was needed going forward – she just had to start pouring. God did not just provide the rest without her partaking in the action.
As we see Jesus with feeding the five thousand, someone brought what they had and gave it to Him. He didn’t say “bring me what you have and I will multiply it”, someone had to hand it to Him first.

I was challenged this weekend to not wait until I had what I thought was enough, but to use what I have and let God do what God can do. I hope this encourages you also.

Have a blessed day,


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