5When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"
6He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
8Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up,
9"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"
10Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them.
11Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
12When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."
13So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world."
Devotion written on 14 Sept 2022 evening
Today my mum cooked barley water and I saw there is a lot of barley left after taking the barley water. My mum wanted to throw them away, I said “Is such a waste to throw them away.” I decided to take some and kept it. I told mum that I will cook it together with my vegetables for my meals. There is still a lot of left over barley which mum threw away even though I took some. For many years, mum had been throwing away the barley after cooking it to get barley water. But lately, I just find it such a waste to throw away the left over barley after getting the water. Today while preparing dinner cooking my vegetables with barley, I was thinking of those who don’t have food and decided to write about not wasting food for today’s devotion.
As I was searching for suitable verse to use. John 6:12-13 caught my attention. Jesus told his disciples to gather the left over bread. This is about not wasting food and Jesus miracle of multiplying the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. I decided to read the earlier verse in front and saw that the bread is actually barley loaves. The bread was made of barley. What a timely word from God. I decided to Google and find out about barley bread and how they are been made. Is made from barley flour and the barley flour comes from barley. Looking at the videos and reading the instructions about how to make barley flour make me realize barley can use to make flour. I never realize that until today. Flour an important ingredient to make bread. Today’s God message is definitely timely. There are the message about God’s provision of food, barley bread made from barley and no wastage of food. All the things I want to talk about is found in today’s verse.
Do you realize that even though God can provide food, He also want us not to waste food. He told his disciples to collect the left over barley loaves.
In this season of life where everything is getting expensive with high inflation, food scarce because of war, diseases, weather, we should not waste food. We should be thankful we have food in our table for us to take. May my family and the rest of the world realize this.
Let’s pray.
Dearest Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your reminding me not to waste food. Thank you for your timely word. Thank you for your provision to me and my family. I am really grateful we have food at our table. Forgive my family for wasting food. Let my family members realize their mistakes and repent. They will treasure every food and not waste any left over food that can be eaten.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Janice Ong
