July 4

Serving Christ And Serving Men

When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” — John 6:5 BSB

Notice that little pronoun "We"! When our Lord stood before the vast crowd of hungry people, He could have asked His disciples, “What are you going to do?” He could have told them to come up with a way to address the hunger and weariness of the crowd. But instead, He identified Himself with them, saying, “How shall we do it?” Isn’t that still His way today? He knows the needs of the world, but He invites us into fellowship with Him concerning those needs, saying, “This is not just for Me, not just for you, but for us together.” “I am the Vine, you are the branches.”

Even as Jesus spoke of buying bread, “He knew what He would do.” He already had the entire plan in His mind, knowing He would be the Host of the meal. Yet He spoke of buying, to see what His disciples would suggest, to test whether they would turn to Him in simple faith or try to handle the situation based on their own ideas. They chose the latter, as we often do when facing challenges. We calculate our resources and try to work it out, just as the disciples did when they said, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not enough for everyone to have a little!”

Then Andrew thought of the little boy he had seen earlier. How proud and pleased that boy must have been when he heard that Jesus wanted his small lunch! He gladly gave it up at the call of the One whose voice had already touched him deeply.

How can we serve Christ, and what do we have to offer Him? Five small loaves and two little fish may not seem like much, but Jesus can take the smallest and simplest things and use them in amazing ways for His glory and the blessing of others. It’s remarkable what Christ can do with our lives if we just put them in His hands. Even if we don’t have great gifts to offer, we can bring the special ability we each have, and He will use us to organize, serve, and share the bread and wine of the Gospel, offering it freely to all.

Prayer

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Amen.