Devotion for 1 May

A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin for 1 May 2016. Today we continue a multi-part sermon on the miracle of feeding the crowd. Some of the devotion and prayer are adapted from the LSB footnotes pp1672.

GOSPEL READING Mark 8:1-9 (English Standard Version)

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.

Devotion: Déjà vu all over again

If you have been following this series, last week we had the disciples not realizing or recognizing the miracle that Jesus performed while they helped served food to the multitude. Now they are in the same situation with fewer people to feed and more food supplies but they still don’t get it. They fail to see how His power moves things forward. We are not unlike those early disciples, sometimes we forget the many blessings that God has given us. Truly he has fed us with a multitude of gifts, let us not forget.

We pray: Lord teach us to turn to You first for our every need. Amen