In Emerging from Covid-19 Isolation, We Must Resist Focusing on Our “Needs” Rather than Others’ “Needs”

DEVOTIONAL VIDEO

MESSAGE SUMMARY:

Feeding of the 5000 (St. Andrews Episcopal Church; Ft, Worth, TX)

Jesus life and actions provide lessons to us of focusing on the needs of others over our perceived personal needs. In Mark 6:34, we see that Jesus’ compassion for the people, in the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, supplanted His personal need to grieve for the death of John the Baptizer and to rest. Rather, Jesus began to, immediately, minister to the people: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”. Like Jesus and in order to receive what God knows that we require, we need to move our focus away from our personal desires and perceived needs onto the real needs of others. When we move our focus away from ourselves and to a “outward focus”, we become free to hear and to receive from God. As in Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, God desires that we look to Him; to take what He has given us; and to give to those in need. No matter where we are or in what context of life’s involvement that we find ourselves, we need to be willing to be broken vessels for use by God for His purposes.

 

TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: Today, Because of who I am in Jesus Christ, I will not be driven by Anger. Rather, I will abide in the Lord’s Forgiveness. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5).

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE (ESV): Mark 6:31; Mark 6:34; Mark 6:41; Mark 6:43; Psalms 46:1-11.

THIS SUNDAY’S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “Throughout the Bible, We Witness God’s Power; as a Follower of Jesus, You Witness God’s Power, Personally, in Your Life": at our Website: www.AWFTL.org/listen/.

WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “Your Conscience Is a Mighty Gift From God if You Listen to Your Conscience and keep it ‘Clear’”:  www.AWFTL.org/watch

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