By: Wendell Calder

Whenever any company or organization has a job opening, certain skills and abilities are required of a person who would fill that position. The goal of the business is to match an individual and a job so that the job gets done and the individual uses the abilities God has given him.

Anyone who has trusted Christ as his personal Savior is qualified in at least one area of service to God. God has a place for that Christian that no other believer can fill.

When God chooses people to serve him, he does not use the same criterion that we might use. In I Corinthians 1:26-29 we read: “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world; and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.”

When Queen Victoria read that verse, she reportedly said, “Thank God it said not many noble instead of not any noble are called.” God does use some people who are noble and mighty, but most of his servants are not so blessed. He has strict qualifications – ones that the world would consider disqualification’s. God chooses weak, despised, base people. Why? It would seem that people with an abundance of talent could do the job better. But the Bible tells us why God has not chosen the mighty, the wise and the noble – so
no one can glory in his presence. God will not share his glory with anyone.

The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 beautifully illustrates how God uses things that the world would scorn. He takes a little, adds himself to it, and makes it much. We may not be much in ourselves, but with God we can do anything he asks of us. The Bible says we “can do all things through Christ” (Phil. 4:13).
Little is much when God is in it.

In Mark 6:32-44 we find an account of this miracle: Jesus had been teaching the Word of God all day. When evening came, the disciples asked Jesus to send the people to the nearby villages in order to
purchase food.

But Jesus told the disciples to feed the people, even though the disciples knew that they did not have the money to buy the amount of food it would take to feed that many people.

The Book of John relates that Andrew found a boy with a lunch of five loaves and two fish. It is interesting that Jesus used something so small to accomplish something so great. Yet what he did with that lunch he can do with any of us.

He Took It

Jesus did four things with the little boy’s lunch. First, he took it from him-” when he had taken the five loaves and two fishes” (Mark 6:41). Jesus did not do anything with the lunch until he had it. And he did not have it until the boy was willing to give it to him. Jesus did not force the boy to give his lunch to him. But
when the boy was willing to give it, Jesus took it. He is willing to take what we have today and use it if we are willing to place it in his hands.

Notice also that Jesus took all of the lunch. He took it all, and he used it all. There is nothing the Lord would rather do than to take the nothings of this world and make something out of them. He likes to pick up the broken pieces and put them all back together again. He likes to take ruined lives and mend and mold them by his own grace and power. What he requires of us is the same as the boy – put what we have in the hands of the Lord Jesus.

Have you given Jesus all of your “lunch”? There is no better place to put our lives, our wills, our emotions and all of the rest of us than in his omnipotent hands. The boy’s little lunch didn’t look like much in comparison to what it had to accomplish, but little is much when God is in it.

He Blessed It

Second, once Jesus took the lunch, he blessed it (see v. 41). This means that Jesus Christ put something into that boy’s lunch that was not there. He blessed it. He put his power upon it. When Jesus touched and blessed that lunch, it was no longer the same. It had been a meal for one; but after Jesus got through with it, it fed more than 5,000.

When Jesus touches a life, that life is no longer the same either. But he cannot bless a lunch he does not have, nor can he bless a life he does not have. He can only bless those things that are freely given, wholly and unreservedly, into his hands. Saul of Tarsus was a good example of this. When this wicked Pharisee met the Savior, Christ mastered him. What a changed man he was – all because he allowed God to have him and change him.

He Broke It

After Jesus took the lunch and blessed it, the Bible says he broke it. It needed to be broken so it could be used. That broken lunch teaches us a significant spiritual truth today. The reason so many believers cannot be used of God the way he would like to use them is that they have never been broken. Pride keeps many people from trusting Christ as Savior, and it also keeps some believers from serving Him. Our lives need to be broken and yielded to him. He Used It

Finally, not only did Jesus take the lunch, bless it and break it, he used it. But he did not use it until he had it. He did not use it until he blessed it; he did not use it until it was broken. Many Christians want God to use them, but he cannot because of sin in their lives – indifference, wrong attitude, jealousy, pride, anger, rebellion, unbelief, and so forth. God wants to use all of us. But he needs all of us.

There are many other examples in the Word of God of so-called little things that accomplish great things for God. Moses was used to lead the Israelites, even thought he felt inadequate. Gideon won an important battle with only 300 men. The walls of Jericho fell down merely by the sound of trumpets. A boy killed a giant with a sling. The tears of a baby moved the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter.

Little is much when God is in it. He wants to use you, regardless of how insignificant you may feel you are. He specializes in taking the insignificant, the lowly, the despised thing and making it a precious tool in his hand. Trust him to do that for you.

(The above material originally appeared in Confident Living.)

Christian Information Network