Have you ever wondered if your giving to the Lord truly makes any difference?
Many people feel like any contribution they make to God’s Kingdom is so small that it hardly makes any difference. When a need is great and your gift is small, it can be discouraging to think that your little bit doesn’t really help.
In John 6, however, we read an amazing story of multiplication. A massive crowd of five thousand men, in addition to women and children, gathered to be part of Jesus’ ministry. Not surprisingly, eventually everyone grew hungry, but there was no Costco nearby.
So, a poor little boy with cheap barley bread and a few small fish opened his lunchbox and gave what he had to Jesus. How could the lunch of a little boy possibly make any difference to a stadium-sized crowd?
Jesus multiplied the little boy’s lunch so that everyone ate until they were full, and twelve baskets of leftovers remained!
This is the Kingdom principle of multiplication. When you give what you can give, God does what God can do. To be sure, Jesus Christ could have simply fed the people without the little boy’s gift. Jesus had already turned water in to wine, and in the Old Testament gave His people the manna bread every day. But, Jesus chose to use the gift of the little boy to increase his faith and allow him the joy of being part of the loving and serving of people in need. It just goes to show that it does not matter much how much you give, but rather who you give it to, because God will multiply what you give.
How have you seen God multiply in your life? How is your giving toward the Lord?