A Pattern For Stewardship | Mark 8:8-9 | Good, Good News
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A Pattern For Stewardship | Mark 8:8-9

A Pattern For Stewardship
By: O'Neill Trull


Mark 8:8 In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3 And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4 And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5 And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6 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. 7 And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8 And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9 And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. 

The feeding of the four thousand has many wonderful lessons for us, the one I want to touch on briefly is stewardship. In this passage Jesus teaches that stewardship is not about how much we have, but rather, what we bring to Him. The disciples found 7 loaves to feed thousands. However, Jesus was not concerned with the amount, He simply took what they brought to him.

We then see Him
give thanks, this is perhaps the most crucial element in stewardship. When is the last time we stopped to give thanks for the opportunity to give? Next we see Jesus breaking the bread and distributing it to His disciples. In the same way, every day Jesus entrusts resources to us, so that we can distribute to those around us. The final lesson we see in this passage is the miracle of multiplication. We give, and He makes it enough! This week, let us set in our hearts to give of our time, money, wisdom, love, joy and peace, and see what God does with it.

stewardship is not about how much we have, but rather, what we bring to Him.