Hungry and Thirsty

“Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35 NIV

My dear child,

You feel depressed and discouraged today because of all the struggles of life you are facing.

But I have bread for you that will encourage and strengthen you if you will accept it. After all - I would never give you a stone if you came to ask me for bread. I love you.

The bread I give you will multiply as you share it with others, bringing joy to your heart. Your heart will overflow with so much joy that you will have baskets full left over!

I am offering my life-giving water to quench your thirst. When you drink it, it will become a mighty spring welling up inside you and giving you eternal life. It will satisfy the deepest thirsting of your soul and flow out from you to others.

When you eat this bread and drink this water, you will never hunger or thirst again!

Love,
Jesus

John 6:35; John 4:13; Matthew 7:9

Father help those in our community who are hungry today. Use us to reach out and provide for them - whether it is food for their tables or food for their souls. Amen!

Giving from the heart

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. Luke 6:38 (NLT)

When going through difficult circumstances, it's easy for our focus to shift from the Lord to our own feelings, especially if we're experiencing fear. Fear has fangs that easily burst our bubble of faith.

When that happens, we withdraw emotionally from the Lord and others. We tend tighten the hold we have on what we've got - whether it's our finances or our possessions, or even the prayer and emotional support we normally give to others.

You know what I mean. Those days you feel so emotionally drained, you'd rather stay in bed with the covers over your head than doing something for someone else or thinking about the problems of those worse off than you.

Rather than giving to others freely we turn away from them because we're afraid we won't have anything left if we give it all.

It's a lot like the illustration of the monkey with his hand in the narrow-mouthed cookie jar. He could easily slide his hand into the jar, but when he grasped the cookie in his fist, he couldn't remove his hand from the jar. But he still refused to let the cookie go because it belonged to him. Even if he couldn't eat it himself, he still possessed a cookie. But if he let it go, he feared he wouldn't have anything at all.

Yet, the scriptures are filled with stories of those who faced dire circumstances and still shared freely with others. The widow who only had enough oil and flour to make one last meal for herself and her son is a good example. When Elijah came to her and asked her to share her last meal with him, she did it freely and God blessed her with an inexhaustible supply until the famine ended. (1 Kings 17:10-16)

Even in his darkest hours, the Lord only thought of us. In the predawn hours he spent praying in Gethsemane's garden, he loosed his hold on his physical life as he prayed, "Not my will but thine be done." As he hung on the cross dying, he prayed for forgiveness for his enemies because they didn't understand what they were doing. He gave up his life so that we might have eternal life.

To be able to loosen our fists on our possessions or on our mental and emotional resources in order to help others around us who are in need, is at the heart of the Gospel of Christ. Especially when we're going through rough patches in life ourselves, the act of giving to others with a heart of love allows the Lord to give back to us - joy during our discouragement and materially to meet our needs.

We don't give in order to get - we give because we're already been given so much! And when our hands are empty, God refills them again so we can give some more. Amen!

Bountiful Boxes

This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us. We too, then, ought to give our lives for others! 1 John 3:16 (GNT)

I always love this time of year because it signals our church's Operation Christmas Child shoe box collection week. Everybody seems to get into the spirit of things as they pack shoe boxes full of toys, school supplies personal care items and well...lots of neat stuff!

Besides the joy I see on our students' faces as they pack the boxes, I personally love the stories that come from the children who receive the boxes. Several memorable ones stand out in my mind:

One little orphan boy didn't have much. But he learned in his orphanage Sunday School class that Jesus answered prayer. The only thing he wanted more than anything was a pair of gloves, so he prayed each night for Jesus to give him some gloves. He fully expected to wake up in the morning and find a pair of gloves at the foot of his bed, but it didn't happen.

That didn't dampen this young boy's faith though. He continued to pray. One day the Operation Christmas Child team came to his orphanage and distributed gift boxes. When he opened his box. he found the gloves he prayed for, and also a hat and scarf. Now he wears his hat constantly and proudly tells people that God answers prayer.

Another child received a box filled with nothing but socks. He began to weep when he opened the box. A worker came over to him and told him they could get him another box if he would rather have some different things, but he clutched the box to his chest and refused, still weeping as he told the worker why he was crying. The child had a foot disease and needed to wear socks to keep his feet from becoming infected. Being poor, his parents could not afford to buy the socks. God had answered his prayer for the socks he so desperately needed.

It never ceases to amaze me how God can orchestrate even the contents of a small shoebox, giving it to exactly the right child in answer to a prayer! I can't wait to hear more stories of this year's distribution!

Lord, help us to show our love in the care we take to fill our boxes. Show us other ways we can give our lives for others. Amen.