Matt.14:16 – TPT – “They don’t need to leave,” Jesus responded. “You can give them something to eat.”
The Bible is filled with stories of people giving when they have nothing. I think of the widow’s mite, Jesus said she gave more than all of the wealthy with their large donations. How could Jesus say that? The Lord sees the world differently than we do, the rich give out of their abundance, this widow gave her last penny to the Lord. Then there was the widow that gave Elijah her last meal. She ate literally from the bottom of the barrel of flour for the next eighteen months. Then of course in the feeding of the 5000 we have the seed the Lord used to feed the multitudes, that seed was a young boy’s lunch.
So this is the very reason we have been doing Feed the Multitudes at Victory Church since 1990. That year we were in financial crisis, our survival as a church was highly unlikely. In our lowest moment the Lord told us “You give the people something to eat”. We threw our first free food festival that year on July the fourth. We were able to scrape together hot dogs and hamburgers and some jambalaya, snowballs, and watermelons and fed thousands of people from the poorest areas of New Orleans. That’s where our miracle began. It wasn’t just that we had a successful event, the Lord changed our church. We saw the needy in a different light that year, it was in ministering to the hurting of all kinds we found who we are and we found Who He is. Here is something Spurgeon said about this miracle.
“Glorious word! “They need not depart.” We are able, when he is with us, to meet any cases of want which may arise; we never need send the multitude away to be dealt with by the State, by the parish, or by hirelings.
If we will but set to work, we shall find that the Lord makes us competent for every emergency. “Give ye them to eat ”: you talk of their buying for themselves, but they are penniless, and cannot buy. Everything must be free, or they will starve; you are the men to feed them freely; get at it. Begin at once.”
So here we are 36 years later getting ready for another Feed the Multitudes event. What will happen this year? The poor and the desperate will come, Jesus will be there with us, and we get the opportunity to hand out His food to the broken.
1 thought on “YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT – GIVING WHEN YOU HAVE NOTHING”
Truth be told, every year your blog leading up to July 4th, went over these same scriptures with similar comments from you. It was like when a Christian radio station has a fund raiser, I tuned in for the music, not the financial appeal. I believe I have changed or rather the Lord has done something in me and opened this sometimes obstinate, self-centered me. I lowered the wall to have another look and low and behold, there is more that I was missing, and really, that applies to everything the Lord has to teach me.