People get hungry. Some people starve. Sometimes hunger becomes a matter of life and death. If you don’t eat you’ll get weaker and weaker, and eventually you’ll die.
That’s true physically. It’s also true emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.
Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life. (John 6:48) That means we need to take Him into our being in a spiritual sense in order to live, really live.
But too often people don’t see that Jesus is what they need. They go around hungry, and don’t know how or where to get the food they so desperately need.
There were hungry people when Jesus was here on Earth as well. When His disciples came to Jesus and asked Him to send the people away to find food He replied, “You give them something to eat!” (Luke 9:13)
Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “Tell the people that I’m about to feed them.” Or, “Pray for God’s strength to sustain them as they go to find food.” No, He told the disciples to feed them.
And He’s asking you to do the same.
You, with your five loaves and two fishes, you give them something to eat.
You, with your shady history and bad reputation, you give them something to eat.
You, with your lack of education and simple understanding, you give them something to eat.
You, with your anxiety and fear and shyness, you give them something to eat.
You, with your weakened body and aging face, you give them something to eat.
You, with your broken heart and wounded spirit, you give them something to eat.
And how are you going to do that? How can YOU give the starving people you see something nourishing to eat?
By bringing it all to Jesus.
What the disciples had was only one small boy’s lunch. It would never feed the thousands of hungry people standing there. But when the disciples brought what they did have to Jesus, He took it and blessed it. Then He broke it, and in the distribution of that broken bread everyone had plenty, and was filled to satisfaction. (Luke 9:16-17)
It’s the broken ingredients of your life that God turns into bread that nourishes the starving people around you. That’s how you can let God bake your bread.
Yeast, flour, eggs, salt, and milk don’t look anything like bread. But when they’re mixed together, kneeded, raised, baked, and broken they become bread – the “staff of life.”
Your pain, mistakes, fear, bad past, inexperience, or weakness don’t look like anything that can feed the desperate hunger around you. But when you bring it all to Jesus, He takes that very brokenness and transforms it into that which will nourish starving souls.
Bring your wounds to Jesus. Let Him bake them, bless them, and break them into the bread that will bring life to those in need.
Hey, you. Yes, YOU! YOU give them something to eat!
Your Turn: What small thing do you have in your hand that you can bring to Jesus, so that He might turn it into something by which you can bless others? Leave a comment below.
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