Tonight, as you pray for others' needs as well as your own, are you considering what else you might do, in addition to prayer, for those whose lives touch yours...particularly those in your church family?

Someone once shared the most unusual reason for leaving a church that I had ever heard...one that touched my heart. She said, "When I moved here I was wounded and broken-hearted. I didn't know a soul, and devastating family problems had torn me apart. So, I joined a church. One evening they gathered around me to pray. They prayed, 'God, heal her. Comfort her. Put your arms around her and soothe her broken heart.' But, not one of them put their arms around me. Not one took me out for coffee or asked, 'What can I do for you?' If God works through His people, I sure didn't find Him in that place. I moved to another church."

This reminds me of Jesus' command to His disciples when the multitudes were hungry. The twelve wanted to send the masses to the villages for food, but Jesus said: "'They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.' 'We have only five loaves of bread and two fish,' they answered. 'Bring them here to me,' he said...Taking the five loaves and the two fish...he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied..." (Matthew 14:16-20, NIV).

Before you sleep tonight, ask yourself if you have inadvertently been using prayer to send people away, missing opportunities to be a servant in deed, as well as word. Hear the Lord as He says, "You feed them. Bring what you have to Me. I will bless it, and you will give in abundance to others."

Heavenly Father, thank you for calling me as a co-laborer in the fullest sense of the word. Forgive me for not recognizing opportunities to glorify You. Teach me not only to pray, but to give others what they hunger for. Bless and multiply whatever I have, so they will eat, be filled, and give glory to You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.