40 DAYS - DAY 12 - 3.4.21

Love Goes the Distance - Day 12 – Thursday, March 4th – Pastor Mark White
Scripture Reading – Read Mark 6:30–44 and focus on 6:35-44 below.
Remember to Pause | Read | Reflect | Listen |Pray | Journal |Practice | Encourage/Share |Fast

"Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.” But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.” They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.” Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed."

Jesus and his disciples are on their way to “a quiet place” to get some rest. They are followed on foot by a large crowd. We see Jesus’ compassion for people. He is hungry and tired, but he still takes time to minister to the people because they were like “sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus sends the disciples away to find food, and they return with a little boy's lunch of two fish and five loaves. Jesus gives thanks for the food, raises it to Heaven, blesses it, and gives it to his disciples to pass out. Everyone has more than enough to eat, and there is enough food left over to fill twelve baskets.

Let’s let God shatter our small expectation of what He can do when we learn to bring to Him what He has already given to us. I have heard it said that “little is much when God is in it.” When we are willing to offer our lives sacrificially, relinquishing our hold on our time, talents, and resources, God will use these ordinary things to create extraordinary things. God delights in taking a humble, seemingly insignificant person and using them for His Glory.

Prayer Focus – Pray for your children, grandchildren, or children you know, specifically those who are being drawn away by delusions and lies in our secular world.