Gene’s Daily Scriptural Postings

Blessing Your Gifts: Matthew 15:32-39

Focus Passage: Matthew 15:32-39 (NLT)

While reading this miracle event, I happened to notice a parallel concept that I had never seen before, and in this miracle that involved food, we see this parallel much more directly than the other “feeding the crowd” miracle that Matthew includes in his gospel.

For this miracle, Jesus takes seven loaves of bread and a “few” (read insignificant amount) small fish, and He turns it into a meal that had more than enough for everyone present – and it resulted in seven large baskets of leftovers.

The connection I saw is that there is one basket of leftovers for each original loaf that was donated.

This makes me think about God’s incredible level of generosity and blessing. When we are willing to give Him “a loaf” (i.e. our time, talent, or treasure), He can take it, satisfy all our needs, and give us a large overflowing basket that we can then use to bless others.

The trap we often fall into is thinking that God’s blessing is for only our own benefit. If we take what God has blessed us with and hoard (i.e. “save”) it all away for the future, we are actually showing a lack of trust in God. If God can take what little we have today and use it for something great, why couldn’t/wouldn’t He do it again in the future?

This then means that the blessings He shares are given so that we can bless others. Jesus didn’t multiply the disciples snack into a huge meal for only the disciples. Instead, He did it to feed not only the disciples, but the whole crowd present.

With this insight, I don’t believe that saving is bad, but instead that saving without sharing is the problem. If we share some, save some, and then use what is left for us, I believe this is a better representation of God’s character.

Our natural tendency is to hoard our blessings and/or use it only for ourselves, but God has given an example of extravagant generosity: when we give Him the little we have, He can multiply it into so much that there are baskets full of leftovers. One loaf in God’s hands became one basket of leftovers at the end of a giant, satisfying meal.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

Read this article on the web on it's official page: Blessing Your Gifts: Matthew 15:32-39