Please begin with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to guide your heart and mind to what He wants to share with you today! Matthew 14:13-21
“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.’
Jesus replied, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’
‘We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,’ they answered.
‘Bring them here to me,’ he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”
Yesterday, Pastor Delton spoke about this passage. He talked about how the disciples did not have the resources necessary to provide for the situation they found themselves in. But when they brought what they had to Jesus, He made their offering sufficient. He fed thousands of people from five loaves and two fish, and the Father was glorified! Pastor said that we alone do not have what it takes to work through seemingly impossible situations such as this. But when we offer all that we do have to God and surrender our will to him, He can do amazing things….things far greater than anything we could imagine on our own.
This reminded me of something that happened recently to me. I have a paralyzing fear of standing up and talking in front of groups of people. This is something that is frequently required in my job. Sometimes I am so overcome, that I forget what I am saying and get so flustered that I cannot recover. The more that this has happened to me, the more afraid I become. Over the last couple of years, I have learned to avoid these situations at all cost.
Recently, I was asked to help lead one of our youth (Aly) share her testimony in front of our youth group….sort of an interview. I really wanted to say no! But I felt like her story needed to be told, and I was the one to help her. So I decided to get over myself and agreed. As the date approached, I became increasingly more fretful. I was so afraid that I was going to freeze up and let Aly down (she was super nervous too and needed me to be strong!) the night before we were supposed to do our talk, God spoke to me in a dream. He showed me a vision of myself and Aly doing the interview…I was totally calm and relaxed. He even gave me the words that I felt He wanted me to say. As soon as I woke up I wrote them all down.
I wish I could describe the way things went the next night when we shared in front of the group. In contrast to the way public speaking has gone for me in the past…when I was trying to do it on my own. I was so calm, and I think it helped Aly to be calm. Her story was told, and I believe that hearts were moved. This is something that would never have happened had I been acting alone.
This gives me such confidence that I can say “yes!” when God puts me in a situation that I think is too big for me. I can trust that He is big enough to work around my shortcomings.
Erin