12/27/10 - What are My Loaves and Fishes?

John 6:5-13

5 When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?" 

 

6 He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. 

 

7 Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit)." 

 

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, 

 

9 "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?" 

 

10 Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 

 

11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. 

 

12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." 

 

13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

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A boy brings forward five loaves and two fishes.  He offers it to Christ.  Christ takes this humble gift, performs a miracle with it, and feeds more than five thousand people.

Which gets me thinking -- what is it that I offer to Christ for His use?   I clearly have more than five loaves and two fish to give.  What miracles can Christ perform with what I have to offer him? 

Now that I think about it, exactly what HAVE I offered to Christ, for His use?  Sure ... I give away a few things, but always just a small fraction of what I have available -- time, talent, treasure -- but in the end I always hold back MUCH MUCH MUCH more for myself and my family.  

What if I actually offered Him EVERYTHING I have?  What would He do with it?  I can't even imagine, but I'd expect in the end it would be incredible. 

I've "tried" to start down this road before, and many times I have offered myself to Him completely.  But I never make good on the offer.  I hold back.  My faith isn't strong enough to truly give things of high value away to Christ.  

At my current spiritual state, the only thing I can do is to pray for God to change me, so that one day I might be able to be so committed to Him, or at least that eventually I'll TRULY desire to be committed to Him.

That's a humbling thought, but it's the truth.