Bread In The Desert Places

Scripture For Meditation — Mark 6:34-44; Ps 36:5-8

In the first of today’s scriptures, we see an elaboration from Mark’s account, of the story that we read earlier in Matthew 9:35-38.

Mark’s account picks up from where Matthew stopped his reporting of the events as things unfolded—

“When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late.

Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” (Mar 6:35-36)

The disciples’ attitude to the situation very much mirrors what many believers would probably also do, faced with the same circumstances—

There was a great multitude that had gathered; the day was far spent, the location was desolate and isolated, the people were hungry, resources were limited and provisions were scarce!

They came to Jesus with their considered solution to the dilemma (Mar 6:36) —

“Send the crowds away to go into the country and villages round about and buy themselves something to eat.”

But they failed to reckon with the heart of compassion of the Shepherd, and the Lord and the Husbandman of the gathered harvest.

The master will never send the hungry who have come unto him away, without their hunger being satisfied!

Hear His response to the disciples’ request:

You give them something to eat!

And that is the same thing that He is saying to us today.

Sometimes we can look at the masses of unsaved people before or around us and baulk at the enormity of resources needed to reach them in comparison to the often meagre resources that we have, and send them away to fend for themselves without their needs being met.

Troubled marriages, broken lives, frustrated destinies, depressed minds and bound souls, dysfunctional families and the like, and we send them away to go sort themselves out.

But Jesus is saying to us today:

YOU give them something to eat!

Get them to feed on the abundance of my goodness and the delicacies of my steadfast love and unending faithfulness!

What food do we have to feed them with?

As we host the community at the picnic in the park outreach today,

let’s look at them from God’s perspective, through the eyes of the Lord of the harvest and the heart of compassion of the loving Shepherd.

Apart from the physical food that we are offering to them, our spiritual gifts can be the food that many will really need to be fed with, as they wander in helpless hopelessness looking for a fix for their problems.

Prayer Focus

Let’s look and pray to be used by God to reach out to those weary souls that need a touch from Him —

That person that needs a word of knowledge that shows them that God knows their issues; the one that needs a word of wisdom that shows them the way of hope; a word of Prophecy that brings encouragement and comfort; and perhaps that individual that’s in need of a healing touch or miraculous intervention in their lives that shows them how much God truly cares about them.

Or just maybe all that is needed is simply to feed them with the joy of the Lord and the manifestation of His love expressed through us to them.

Pray that God will use us; use you to be a vessel of Grace to reach that one needy person today as the gifts of the Holy Spirit manifest through you.

That truly will be the most amazing and profitable thing that would happen today; when God feeds that hungry soul through you!

Selah,

Pastor Wale Ola