How much do you have?

"'How many loaves do you have?' Jesus asked." Matt 15:34a.

My youth pastor Steve Peach shared this with us the other day so I thought I'd jot it down here cos it's a great principle.

We have here the feeding of the four thousand in Matthew 15. As with the feeding of the five thousand the disciples are worried about the amount of food and what they are going to do with the crowd. Jesus has compassion on the people and wants to feed them but the disciples are dumbfounded. They can't imagine where they could get enough resources to feed these people. They are at a loss as to how they can achieve this task with what they have. And so Jesus asks them a simple question; how much do you have? With their little amount, seven loaves and a few small fish in this case, Jesus feeds four thousand people.

How often in our own lives and our situations we see a task ahead of us and we can't figure out how where the resources are going to come from. We know what God wants us to do but we can't see the resources, it seems impossible. But so often God doesn't ask us to provide the resources, he just asks us to do something faithfully. God didn't say to them; go out and buy enough food, he just asked them what they already had. In our lives God often will ask us to do something that we think is impossible. In our situation at church at the moment we have a seemingly impossible job of finding the right leaders for our youth ministry. In some areas we have enough but in other key areas we have none. God isn't necessarily going to provide what we think we need. We don't need to scramble around finding the people power. We need to trust God.

He asked the disciples; how much do you have? They replied and his actions said; we'll use that. And he did. He used what the disciples hd to offer and he made it work...he's God! In our situation at church we're saying God, we don't have enough leaders for our youth. God says how many do you have? We answer and he replies, we'll use that.

In your life what has God asked you to do that you don't have the resources for? Has he asked you to fill a ministry role that you don't feel adequate for? Has he asked you to step out for him in a relationship or a situation that is way out of your comfort zone? He hasn't asked you if you have the resources to do it, he's just asked you to do it. What was your reply? God, I can't. It's too hard. I don't have the skills, I don't have the courage, I don't have the strength. What do you have, he asks? You answer and he says, 'We'll use that.' We'll use that little bit of talent, or that little bit of courage or that little bit of skill.

"How many loaves do you have? We'll use that."