How to Deal

I confess that sometimes I feel so inadequate to meet the crowd of needs that surrounds me.  Like that little boy with the loaves and fish, I feel that the leoaves I have are so small and the fish, so few.  How far will they go among so many?

And yet, I know that you manifest power through the weak things of this world.

You used a barren couple past the age of childbearing to create a nation as populous as the sand of the seashore.  you used a young shepherd with a slingshot to slay a giant.  You used a poor little boy with five flat loaves of coarsely ground barley bread and a couple of small fish to feed thousands. 

Help me to see, Lord that this is how you characteristically work. 

Help me to see that I don’t need the adequate back account Philip recommended or the abundants assets Andrew hinted at.  All I need is to place what I have in your hands, like that little boy did.

Give me the faith to realize that you will bless what I give, no matter how small the loaves or how few the fish.  No matter how meager the time or the talents or the treasures I place in your hands, you will multiply them.

I don’t have much, Lord, but I give you what I have.  Take my coarsely gound life and the small skills that accompany it.  Take them in your hands, Lord.  Bless them.  Multiply them.  Use them for you glory and for the good of others.

Help me to realize that you are the true bread of life.  Whenever pangs of hunger grab at my soul, help me to see that the bread in other windows – no matter how seductive to the eye or sweet to the taste – is not what I should be eating.  Train my spiritual palate to long for you.  And teach me that you are my daily bread and all the bread I will ever need.

Lord, Jesus, I have a friend who has never tasted such bread.  His name is Dave.  He has sampled from life’s smorgasbord, tasted from all that life has to offer.  But he is starved for something more.  Starved for love.  For acceptance.  For forgiveness.  For meaning and purpose.

Help me to lead him to you, Jesus.  Prepare her heart so that I might be, as someone once said, merely one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread . . .

Thank you, Jesus, for this life you have given me.  Thank you for dying on the cross so that I can have an intimate relationship with the Father.

Romans 1:19

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

He will return your wasted years.

Oh, I sure hope so.  God knows (and I mean God really does know) how much time I’ve wasted recently.

Time is our most precious commodity, is is not?

He will return my wasted years.

Wow.

A refuge for the poor

a shelter from the storm

This is our God.

He will wipe away your tears and return your wasted years.

This is our God.

A father to the orphan

a healer to the broken

This is our God

He brings peace to our madness

and comfort to our sadness.

This is our God.

This is the one we have waited for.

This is our God.

a fountain for the thirsty

a lover for the lonely

He brings glory to the humble

and crowns for the faithful.

This is our God

So call upon His name

He is mighty to save.

This is our God.