• Our Little Plus Jesus' All

    By: Kristen L. McNulty

    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

    We are surrounded by needs. There's the practical, like people who need a hand with home repairs or shoveling their driveway. There's the essential, like those who are hungry and need help to get food. And then there the spiritual like those around us who are hurting, discouraged, depressed, or just in need of knowing that there is a God who loves them.

    Sometimes the needs are so great that they overwhelm us into inaction. We don't have enough to give to solve the problem completely and so we think that means there's no point in trying because it will never happen. But as we can see in the Bible that's just not true.

    In the book of Matthew, chapter 14, we are told that Jesus' disciples also faced a need where they were outnumbered and left with not enough resources to get the job done. There was a crowd of at least five thousand people who had gathered to hear Jesus speak. Afternoon turned into evening and the people needed to have supper. Jesus' disciples approached him and told him that he should dismiss everyone so they could go off to buy food in the village, but Jesus wouldn't hear of it. Instead he told the disciples to feed them.

    The disciples took stock of their supplies and found a huge problem- they only had five loaves of bread and two fishes. Enough for a few to eat, but so far removed from what five thousand hungry people would require that it seemed laughable to even try. But the disciples forgot something that we often also forgot and that is: our little plus Jesus' all will always equal more than what is needed. We just have to be willing to give all of what little we have.

    You might have not very much money to feed the homeless but your little plus Jesus' all will be miracle worthy.

    You might struggle with poor health and not have a lot of energy to give to the Kingdom, but your little plus Jesus' all can change the world.

    We all have areas of limitations and we all are presented with needs that seem too big for just one person to handle, but we can't forget that just like the disciples five loaves and two fishes plus Jesus fed thousands with leftovers, our sacrifice of time, money or resources plus Jesus will meet more needs than we can even fathom!

    We can't feed every hungry child in the world on our own, but we can give money to sponsor a child and see what our little plus Jesus can do.

    We can't rescue all those trapped in depression on our own, but our love plus Jesus can change a life.

    We all have something to give, even as simple as five loaves and two fishes, that God can use to change the world. The question is are we willing to let him?

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