Matthew 14:18 He said, Bring them hither to me.
Before You Give
It was typical of the Lord Jesus to be moved with compassion at the sight of a multitude. Matthew 14 tells us the story of how a great company of people, 5,000 at the very least, gathered about Him when the disciples came to Him saying, “This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away.” The disciples went on to say that the multitude needed something to eat. Jesus’ disciples reasoned this was the wrong time and the wrong place to feed a hungry multitude.
Jesus response is really interesting. Verse 16 says, “But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.” Why would Jesus tell the disciples to do something they clearly could not do? Does Jesus ever ask us to do something we cannot do? I am afraid the answer is yes. It is our inclination to say that God never asks us to do anything that we cannot do, but He has and He does.
Now, Jesus will never ask you to do anything that He cannot do! So much of what must be done can only be done by the power of God and not by the power that we naturally have. That is why the disciples said to Jesus, “We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.” Then Jesus said, “Bring them hither to me.”
Jesus knew they had nothing to give except these meager resources, and He went on to multiply these resources. He then gave them back to the disciples who distributed them to the hungry multitude.
When it was all said and done, they had more fragments left over than they had had to begin with. Usually what you have after a meal is less than what you had before the meal, but in this case, what was left after the meal was actually more than what they had before the meal. What was the difference? The difference was Jesus. He is the One Who said, “Bring them hither to me.”
The takeaway is that before you give anything to someone else, give it to Christ first. You may think that you have nothing to give, but that is simply not true. It may be the equivalent of a few loaves or fish, but whatever you have is more than it actually appears to be when it is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether you have musical ability, computer skills, mechanical savvy, or something else, there are things you can give. As meager as they may seem to you sometimes, if you give them to the Lord Jesus first, Jesus is the difference between five loaves and two fish and a feast for 5,000.
Be on the lookout for ways you can give, but before you give to anyone else, give it to the Lord Jesus.