Are we brave enough?

"What do you have?  Give it to me."

That's what Jesus said to the disciples before he fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.  He didn't tell the disciples to give him what was NEEDED to accomplish this inconceivable task, but instead Jesus asked the disciples for what they HAD and to trust him to do the miracle.  In essence Jesus said, 'Give it over, get out of my way and let me be God!'

This illustration was used by Gary Haugen in his message this past weekend and it got me thinking - What am I 'giving' God?  Am I holding anything back?  Waiting to get better?  Am I being selective with what I give?  Am I being selfish with what I'm willing to release back to God?  Am I assuming what I have isn't enough?

Jesus is asking for me to give him what I have...right now, at this minute, as incomplete and broken as it and I might be.  Give myself to Jesus and let him do the miracle.

Seems so simple doesn't it?  Then what's holding us back?

Gary challenged us to consider what it could mean for our lives if we believed it when we heard God say,

'Follow me beyond what you can control, beyond where your own strength and ability will take you, beyond what is affirmed by the crowd and you will experience me, and my power and my love in a way that you cannot possibly imagine.'    

Guess what?  Those words aren't just a 'nice idea' - those words are a promise. 

Are we brave enough to believe them?