Loaves and Fishes

(Notes from Crazy Love by Francis Chan)

Jesus gave the loaves to his disciples and then the disciples passed them out to the crowd. Imagine if the disciples had simply held onto the food Jesus gave them, continually thanking Him for providing lunch for them…

But that is exactly what we do when we fail to give freely and joyfully. We are loaded down with too many good things, more than we could ever need, while others are desperate for a small loaf. The good things we cling to our more than money: we hoard our resources, our gifts, our time, our families…

“What are you doing right now that requires faith?”

That question affected me deeply because at the time I could think of nothing in my life that required faith…

God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through…

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10)

We are each given different gifts and talents by our Master. The thing that matters most is how we use what we have been given, not how much we make or do compared to others. What matters is that we spend ourselves.