God Can’t Use What we don’t give Him

One night this summer when I was awake thinking and praying about things. This thought came to me, God can’t use what we don’t give Him. Now that may seem odd when we know God owns the Universe all that is in it. But He relies on us, His people, to give and offer up to Him ourselves and what we have for His use.
 At the moment I had that thought I also immediately thought of the story of the little boy with lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fishes. God owned everything in this world and anything could have been at His disposal to feed these 5 thousand men plus women and children, but instead, He depended upon a little boy and his little lunch. This required that the boy put himself out and to offer his lunch for Jesus to use. The boy must have wondered what Jesus would ever do with that meager amount of food for so many hungry people but he wanted to do what he could to help and gave  it to Jesus just the same. Then Jesus gave thanks for the food, and the disciples began to pass out the fish and loaves to the crowd of 5 thousand. Not only was the whole crowd fed, but there were also 12 baskets of left overs!

The story of the 5 loaves and 2 fish from the gospel of John.
 John 6:5-13 New Living Translation (NLT)
5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, "Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?" 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.7 Philip replied, "Even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them!"8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. 9 "There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?"10 "Tell everyone to sit down," Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

 What a beautiful miracle that only God does!
But notice that miracle required the act and obedience of one boy to give his lunch.
Are we offering what we have, no matter how small or meager it may appear, for God to use?
I know this concept may seem strange when we know everything belongs to God already. But that is the way God does His work. He works through willing, obedient, and faithful people. People that are willing to lay themselves down for His service, who are willing to give of their time, talents, money, etc. But it requires our giving. If we don’t give it God can’t use it.
And if He can’t use us He will use someone else because His work will be accomplished - with or with out us! He will use someone else who is more willing and they will receive the blessing that comes with doing God’s service, not us.

I don’t mean just giving what comes easily to us, but also what comes hard. What takes us out of our little comfort zone. What stretches us beyond the limits we have set for ourselves. What takes us to places we would rather not go or do things we would rather not do.
Are we willing to do this? Are we saying, “Lord I am your willing vessel for your use in whatever or wherever you want me to go or do. I am all yours, you can use me Lord. And I know you will equip me for you will call me to do.”
Or have we put up a wall and said, “I can do this and this Lord, but I won’t do this.” Or, “I will give this and this, but I won’t and just can't give that Lord.” We do that, and we are limiting what  God can do through us.
 If we don’t give it God can’t use it!
In Him, Mae