SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2022 9:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4 “The
Display of Power”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
14:18-21
Message of the verses: “18 And He said,
"Bring them here to Me." 19 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, 20 and they all
ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces,
twelve full baskets. 21 There were about five thousand men who ate, besides
women and children.”
In today’s SD we continue to look at what Jesus was
teaching His Twelve disciples from this wonderful miracle of the feeding of the
5000.
We
begin by looking at God’s great generosity as He provided enough food for every
person, and every person was satisfied with what he was given to eat. In the economy of this time period great
stewardship was also involved as in the end the extra food was collected and
there were twelve baskets left over.
MacArthur writes “Ours is a God of abundant providence, who does not
give stingily. The ministry of God’s servants
should also be characterized by giving without reserve or measure, considering
the needs of others before our own.
Before the disciples knew that food would be left for them, they
obediently gave all they had to the multitudes.
Just as the food did not begin to multiply until after the disciples
started to distribute it, their own needs were not met until they had met the
needs of others. The little bit of food
Jesus handed to the disciples was far short of enough to feed even twelve men. It was one little boy’s lunch. But in obedience to Jesus, they gave away
even what little they had.”
I
have a story that kind of goes along with what we are learning from this
section of Scripture. There is a
wonderful man who lives in the Central African Republic who has a great deal to
do with the ministry that goes on in that country. The Central African Republic was the
beginnings of what is now called Baptist Mid Missions which began 102 years ago
this year. BMM as it is known has been
doing the work of the Lord faithfully for all of its 102 years. Now the story is about this man who is what I
would call the spiritual leader in this African country and earlier this year
he let it be known that they needed money in order to drill a well as they were
running out of fresh water in the town he lives in. He let this need be known to a friend of mine
who was the longest serving president of BMM, but retired seven years ago. Shortly after knowing of this need he got a
phone call from a person who wanted to know if he knew of any urgent need, as
this person had a burden to help out, but didn’t know where the Lord wanted to
have him use his money to help out. The
money was given and the well was dug and video pictures were sent to my friend
of how this fresh water was gushing out of the ground. In our prayer meeting last evening we prayed
for additional monies to be given in order to build a large water tank to put
the water in to make it easier for the people to get the fresh water. It would be kind of like a water tower that we
see in towns today in our country. So we
are praying that an additional $4000 will be given to complete this
project.
Lord
willing we will continue to look at more lessons that Jesus was teaching His
Twelve disciples from this feeding of the 5000 miracle.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I don’t believe that giving to a ministry or
a missionary project should be given just so that the person who gives to it
can receive a reward from the Lord as motive to give, but that a person must
have on their hearts the desire to follow the Lord’s leading in giving to a
project for that reason alone, and then if it is the Lord’s plan to give a
reward to a person for obedience that would be up to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will work in my heart
to do the things that He desires for me to do just because that is what I
should always be doing.
6/16/2022 10:15 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment