March 15

John 6:12 (NIV)
12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”

Jesus is not a waster of anything. You might think that because of the miraculous multiplication of food, that it really wouldn’t matter what happened to the left over. After all, the people were full. Here is where I look beyond the ‘don’t waste material things’ and see what Jesus is trying to teach us. Jesus didn’t say anything without it being purposeful, (I would like to be more like Jesus in that). Gather the left over. We could apply this to our ‘things’, or we could apply this to people – as in the left overs of the world. There is plenty of teaching on that subject, but today I think the meaning for us to get is this – you.

We are one of the great assets of the Kingdom of God. We have the ability to advance it – in fact, if we don’t advance it, who will? Jesus is communicating to us today about our high value and He is asking us not to waste our lives on the ‘stuff’ of this world. Gather the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted. I don’t know about you but I waste myself on things that I shouldn’t. I am not talking about how unfruitful watching a hockey game is or other recreation like that, but I am talking about having a purposeless lifestyle except to make a buck and please yourself. This story is about feeding others and then after the others are fed Jesus says gather up the rest of the miraculous supply because we are going to use it. It is valuable! You are valuable! We cannot live like we used to. We must grow up into a great maturity and live each day with His purpose. Don’t judge left overs by how many hours you have left at the end of your day, your life has more meaning than time. Talk to Jesus today about this, see what He says to you.