DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT – WEDNESDAY: Ministering To The Needy

"The days in which we live are days of great opportunity and of grave responsibility, and a second-hand religion is not good enough for times such as these. They demand that we should always be at our best if we are to seize our opportunities and manfully shoulder our responsibilities." -- J. A. Broadbelt.
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And his disciples answered him, "How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?" And he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven." And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. -- Mark 8:4-9. ESV

Yesterday we said, that there is a world that needs Christ and our responsibilities as Christians is to meet that need. We saw how we could be involved in reaching our world for Him, and that our world consists of where our ministry will take us; our family, our employment, our community, our City and it may even be in our Church.

Also one of the sure ways of getting involved was to ask the Lord to grant us daily opportunities to minister to the needs of others. We realised that to minister to the needs of others we needed compassion, and now the next principle involved is to comprehend that...

OUR RESPONSIBILITY – IS TO FEED THEM
They were in a remote desert region in the mountains, and Jesus had told his disciples that people had traveled far and they were hungry, so they needed to feed them. One of the disciples asked him where they could obtain food from, not understanding that they had seen this before. How quickly we can forget events in God so quickly.

The disciples felt just as helpless as they had when the five thousand were fed. They did not rise to faith in the unlimited power of Jesus after all that they had seen. Jesus had no problem in exercising His faith and another miracle occurs when He feeds the people here, who numbered over four thousand. This demonstrates that all who come to Jesus will be fed!

Jesus has placed the Gospel in our hands to share with the world. Jesus encourages the worst sinners to come to him for life and forgiveness, Christ knows and considers our needs. The treasures of Christ are always available; and to show that, He duplicated this miracle. His favours are renewed, as our needs and provisions are. Jesus desires that no one should be lost…

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. -- 2 Pet 3:9.

"My business is with all my might to serve my own generation. In doing so I shall best serve the next generation, should the Lord tarry…I have but one life to live on earth and this one life is but a brief life for sowing in comparison with eternity for reaping." --George Muller.

The Lord wants us to speak out as His followers, who have seen the hand of salvation in our lives, who have seen the transformation which the Holy Spirit brings to us, who have seen the miracle provision of God… Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble -- Psa 107:2.

Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Tell others of His wonderful Gospel! Tell others of His wonderful love, tell the alcoholic, the drug addict, the abuser, the fornicator, the homosexual, the violent, the poor and the rich alike, Jesus commands us to speak out... And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. -- Mark 16:15

"We give ourselves to prayer. We preach a Gospel that saves to the uttermost, and witness to its power. We do not argue about worldliness; we witness. We do not discuss philosophy; we preach the Gospel. We do not speculate about the destiny of sinners; we pluck them as brands from the burning. We ask no man's patronage. We beg no man's money. We fear no man's frown…Let no man join us who is afraid, and we want none but those who are saved, sanctified and aflame with the fire of the Holy Ghost." – Samuel Chadwick.

When we are involved in the ministry of needs, then our responsibility is to feed them with the word of God!

Loving Father, I want to be involved in the ministry of needs to my unsaved family, to my unsaved colleagues at work, to my unsaved community and to my unsaved City. Help me by the Holy Spirit’s power to meet these needs, as the opportunities that you daily give me occur, for your glory! Help me Lord to speak out for you, to tell of your wonderful good news to those that are perishing! In Jesus mighty name I pray! Amen!