Use What You Have
Isaiah 41:10: Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Philippians 4:19: But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 4:16: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Psalms 84:11: For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
2 Peter 1:3: According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Psalms 37:25: I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
These are a few encouraging and comforting passages to memorize and be able to recall when you seem to need something that you don*t have. When we come to Jesus we will always have what we need. Sometimes all we have is our faith and that is enough. This article on Mark 8:1 entitled Use What You Have was written by Evangelist Wil Rice.
Mark 8:1a: In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him . . .
Stress is the gap between need and provision, supply and demand. For instance, if you need five dollars and you have four dollars, the gap between what you need and what you have is stress. You are being stretched between supply, what you have, and demand, what you need to have. If you need an answer and all you have is a question, then that is a gap that is stressing and stretching you. Something needs to fill that gap.
Mark 8:1 says, *In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him…* Notice the words *great* and *nothing.* *Great* describes the multitude and the need. There were a lot of hungry people. *Nothing* describes the supply. There was nothing to eat.
You find similar stories throughout the Bible. In fact, we find these stories throughout your life. Jesus is the One Who brought His disciples to the realization that there was a huge gap between what they needed and what they had.
Why would Jesus so often allow a dilemma like this to occur? The reason is because He would have us to know that He Himself is the One Who can fill the gap between what we need and what we have. The answer is not to wait for something to happen, but to act in obedience to what Jesus has already given us to do.
The disciples came to Him with a logical question. Where were they going to find food for this many people in this kind of place? Instead of just laying down a banquet that came down from the clouds, Jesus asked, *How many loaves have ye?* They said, *Seven.*
Jesus took what they had, blessed it, and had the disciples give it to the people. Jesus multiplied what they already had, and they had more than they needed when it was all said and done. When you don*t have what you need, use what you have. Obedience and faith close the gap between supply and demand. And if God is the One making the demand, then He will certainly supply. It is easy for a person to think, *If God will supply, then I will obey.* No, that is not the way it works. If I will obey, then God will supply.
These people used what they already had. It wasn*t much, but they were being stewards of what they had. Also, the Lord left them with more than they had to begin with. There may be stress or a gap today, but the Lord Jesus is more than able to close that gap if you respond in obedience to Him.
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