Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
Staten Island MTC
44 Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left
over, according to the word of the Lord.
The passage starts out with a man from Baal-Shalishah.
Who was this man from Baal-Shalishah? The fact is that this man has no
name and no recognition of any kind in the passage. Of course he had a name but
it was not important and the Bible does not acknowledge his name. This man gave
what he could to the poor, or the church, or the needy. It is also not
important where he gave and the passage is not clear on where he gave.
The passage teaches us that when we give, we should not feel the
need to be recognized because our God in heaven recognizes us and will not
forget what we have done for the church and the needy. We should not give
expecting something in return from anyone, even from God, because it is our
Christian responsibility to give what we can to whomever needs it. This
is a very important concept to understand.
This
man gave twenty loaves of bread along with some heads of grain. We don’t
know how wealthy this man was in order to understand the magnitude of his
giving. Maybe twenty loaves was nothing to him and it did not matter if
he gave it away. On the other hand this man could have been poor and
these twenty loaves was all that he had and like the poor widow he gave all he
had. The passage however does not dwell on this but just states that he
gave twenty loaves. Only the person who is giving knows what he is giving
to others and if that is in the right proportion to his wealth. God
does not expect us to give everything away but as a Christian it is our duty to
give . “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and
from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded” .Luke
12:48. What we give to others should not just be money and food,
but it must also include our time, talents, and services.
We
often have doubts just like the servant doubted. The servant saw
what was given by the man and sarcastically asked whether the twenty loaves was
sufficient to feed the hundreds who were waiting to be fed. We have a
tendency to believe what we see and not consider the power of God. God,
however, sees and provides accordingly. God knows our needs but sometimes
He gives us more so that we may share with others in need.
PRAYER
Lord, help us to accept all that
we have and trust in your Providence. Help us to have faith like Elisha and not
to doubt like the servant. Please forgive our faults and help us to be
better Christians by serving others in need.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Believe in God’s all-encompassing Providence in our lives!
Believe in God’s all-encompassing Providence in our lives!