Wiersbe's scriptural foundation for this statement was the incident where Jesus was compelled to feed the 5000. The disciples were overwhelmed with the size of the crowd....and the lack of food. They didn't know what to do.
They suggested to Jesus to send the crowd home......they tried to think of ways to come up with the funds to hire a good caterer from the area.
Wiersbe suggests that the disciples were trying to become "manufacturers". They thought it was their responsibility to come up with the solution.
He adds, "He (Jesus) took the lad's lunch, looked up into heaven, blessed the food, broke it, and put it into the disciples' hands......for them to feed the hungry multitude."
I was just thinkin'.........about the distributor under the hood of my car. I'm somewhat mechanically challenged, but I do know that the distributor on your car is what delivers currents of electricity to each spark plug.....which cause explosions in each cylinder.....which cause each piston to move.....which causes your car to travel down the road.
The car's battery is the power source that provides the power to turn the engine, but it's the distributor that properly delivers the power to each piston.
God is the Great Power Supplier of everything that people need. And we have been given the privilege (and obligation) of being the Distributors of God's riches and blessings to those around us.
Wiersbe ends the chapter by saying, "Once you accept yourself as a distributor of God's riches.....and not a manufacturer, you will experience a wonderful new freedom and joy in service."
Sometimes, too much of our "religious" work is us doing something, rather than allowing God to do something through us! Too often we depend on our own resources rather than His.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ".....I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Cor. 15:10b)
Proverbs 16:3
(*) On Being a Servant of God, Warren Wiersbe, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1993
