After a long weekend of family and friends my refrigerator is always filled with leftovers. I have this issue of preparing too much food. I never want anyone to go hungry when they are at our house. This last weekend was no different – we have leftovers!
Do you realize we have a whole industry based on leftovers. Restaurants have “to go” boxes; Rubbermaid, Tupperware, ziplocks, Pyrex all make containers to put your leftovers in. Really, so how important are they?
They were important to Jesus.
“Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and fish and handed them to his disciples to give to the people. 17 Everyone ate all they wanted. What was left over filled twelve baskets.” Luke 9:16-17 CEV
What the Father blesses and Jesus uses to meet a need is not insignificant! It’s valuable.
The Bible teaches us that God’s word is like a seed and when it’s planted in our lives it will bring a harvest, sometimes thirty, sixty and even a hundred times as much. Now that harvest may come in the form of joy, peace, wisdom, health, finances, possessions, and yes, spiritual harvest too.
Elijah asked a widowed woman to give (plant) her little bit of oil and flour to make him a cake during a time of famine. She did! The result was she never ran out of oil and flour until the famine was over.
We should always be aware that we aren’t being wasteful but we shouldn’t be miserly either.
We should be grateful for the blessings that God has given us. Make sure we aren’t taking them for granted; accept the blessing, use it but continue to value it so that you can be a blessing to others.
We can give our time, our encouragement, our knowledge of God’s word, finances, food, clothing, hospitality – all of these are blessings from the Lord.
We’re not told what happened to the twelve baskets of leftovers in the story but I’m sure that Jesus had his disciples continue to share the blessing.
Be a blessing sharer today.