Blessings Abound
Opening Prayer
God, I want to partner with You to bring the bread of life to a world that is dying for lack of it. Prepare me and send me.
Read Matthew 15:29-39
[29] Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. [30] Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. [31] The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. [32] Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.” [33] His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?” [34] “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.” [35] He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. [36] Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. [37] They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. [38] The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. [39] After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What moves Jesus to action (32)?I have just returned from Spring Harvest, a major Christian holiday event in the United Kingdom, where I live. It is six wonderful days of being with several thousand other Christians, worshiping in a big tent, learning, and having fun together. It is like being on the hill with Jesus.Jesus is now in a Gentile area (21,29; cf. Mark 7:31). Otherwise the conditions are pretty much the same as at the previous al fresco meal in chapter 14. This time, however, it is Jesus, filled with compassion, who approaches the disciples with concern that the people are going hungry (32). Somehow the disciples still seem not to have learned that they can trust Jesus to provide (33), in spite of what they have seen with their own eyes. But working alongside him, everything is possible. And it is for us, too. What an amazing number of lives Jesus touched over those three days! The people had put aside their commitments for a while and given their time to God. They were blessed with healing and filled with much more than food.
Apply
Ask God to expand your expectation of what he can do, as he did for the disciples.
Closing prayer
Jesus, I long to see the world satisfied as You meet needs both spiritual and physical. You can do the impossible.
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