The Offering of My "Only"

Tonight I had the AWESOME opportunity to speak with the sweet mamas of Generation M.  I cannot begin to tell you what great encouragement it is for my soul to speak out loud God's Word to these mamas, or here on this blog to all of you.  It encourages me to believe HIS Truth over what I am experiencing (feeling).  I am forced to refocus my eyes on HIM, and less on me and what I am going through.  This is therapy for my aching soul! 

HE is the ONE who can quiet the storm with a word (Mark 4:35-41).  HE is the ONE who can bind up my broken heart (Psalm 147:3).  HE is the ONE who can tell me great and incomprehensible things that I do not know (Jeremiah 33:3). 

 I pray that you are encouraged by HIS living, breathing, active Word, as I am (Hebrews 4:12)!

 

 

The Offering of My "Only":

 

"When evening came, the disciples approached Him and said, “This place is a wilderness, and it is already late. Send the crowds away so they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” “They don’t need to go away,” Jesus told them. “You give them something to eat.” “But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him. “Bring them here to Me,” He said. Then He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed them. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples ⌊gave them⌋ to the crowds. Everyone ate and was filled. Then they picked up 12 baskets full of leftover pieces! Now those who ate were about 5,000 men, besides women and children." (Matthew 14:15-21 HCSB)

One of the parts that really stood out to me was when Jesus told the disciples to feed the crowd and IMMEDIATELY they came back with how little they had to share. 

 

Doesn't this happen to us all the time? 

 

HE might be asking us to do something, but all we can focus on is our "little".  Jesus told the disciples that the crowds did not need to go away and that they were to feed these people, and the reply was "but we ONLY have....." 

This brings me back to so many other leaders that were lacking:

~Moses wasn't very good with words but was sent by God to lead HIS people out of Egypt (Exodus 3 & 4).
~Gideon was sent by God to deliver Israel from the power of Midian, but was from the weakest family, and he was the youngest in his father's house (Judges 6:11-24).
~David was chosen, by God, as King even though he was the youngest of Jesse's sons, and was not as physically impressive as his brothers.  God does not look at appearance and stature-what is visible, HE sees the heart of man (1 Samuel 16:6-13).
~Paul was called by God to spread the Good News of the Gospel to the Gentiles, even though he had formerly persecuted the church (Acts 7:57-8:3, Acts 22:4-5, Acts 22:6-21).
~Peter and John were called by Jesus as HIS Disciples, yet they were uneducated and untrained men (Acts 4:13-14).

Do you get the feeling that you are lacking?

Jesus responded to the disciples "only" with, "Bring them here to Me."  Now, here begins the miracle.  The disciples brought their "only" to HIM.  HE took it, HE blessed it, HE broke it, then HE gave it back to them to distribute to the crowds.  HE wants our "only."  HE wants to take our weakness, or our lacking, and bless it, break it, give it back to us, so that we are able to share it with others as a testimony of HIS Goodness, not our self-sufficiency!

Where we see lack, HE sees opportunity to show up!  When we have not enough, that is the place where HE can show up with HIS Enough.  That is where the glory transfers from us to HIM.  What we could not provide for, HE supplies in ABUNDANCE!!

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 AMP—But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me!  So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).

What "only" do you need to bring to HIM today to take, bless, break, and give back so that you can give to others? 

 

Where do you need to trust in HIS provision, not your own?

HE has placed those in our lives that are sitting on the grass, watching us give our "not enough" to HIM for blessing and breaking.  Those crowds (family, friends, co-workers, etc.) are sitting on the grass watching a miracle unfold when HE turns our "only" into an abundance before their very eyes.  You see, as disciples, we are to give all that we have, our "only", to HIM so that the crowds around us may be filled!  What will astound us is that after everyone is filled, we will begin to collect the leftovers and realize that HE has provided MORE THAN ENOUGH for us and the crowds around us. 

So, in Light of Scripture, we have to go to God with our "ONLY."  We have to remember that this life is about faith in HIM, faith in HIS POWER to supply all that we need and more!  We need to stop focusing on our "ONLY" and focus on the ONE who can do anything (Philippians 4:13). 

 

Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.  You have not yet struggled and fought agonizingly against sin, nor have you yet resisted and withstood to the point of pouring out your [own] blood.  Hebrews 12:1-4 AMP

 

 

 

MAKE THE CHOICE TO FIX OUR EYES ON JESUS!! Even when the most tumultuous storm of our lives arrives at the least expected moment in time, we have a choice!  I pray that you and I would make the choice to fix our eyes on HIM and what HE can do, and less on ourselves and the inadequacies that have.

 

Oh, that we would have the faith that when Jesus speaks to us, we would say yes because of HIS sufficiency!!

My prayer for you and me:  "[For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,"  Ephesians 1:17-19 AMP