Stuff Jesus said: Bring it to me

This might seem a random verse to pick, but let me explain. Thousands of people had followed Jesus to hear his teaching. When it was getting late the disciples told Jesus to send the people away so they could go to the surrounding towns to get some food (they were in the countryside). Instead, Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd. They found five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus told the disciples to bring the food to him. Spoiler alert - Jesus  said grace, divided the bread and fish up and fed more than 5000 people with it. Then the disciples collected twelve baskets of leftovers. 

I chose verse 18 to reflect on this week because I believe that Jesus asks us to give him what we have, just like he asked the disciples to give him what they had. This works on several levels:

1. He asks us to surrender our finances and material possessions to him. We do this by tithing (giving God ten percent of our income) and sharing what we have to bless others.
   
2. We also bring our gifts and talents to God. You might not think that you are very gifted or talented but if Jesus can feed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, he can use your gifts and talents. He multiplies what we have - whether it's the gift of encouragement, a great voice, being a prayer warrior, serving... Don't believe the lie that God can't use you - give what you have to him and just wait and see what he will do.

​CHALLENGE: What gifts and talents could you use for Jesus?