40 Day Daniel Fast Day 21

Acts 6:1-7  1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists[a] arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.  
2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
3 Therefore, brothers,[b] pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Devotional
What do problems reveal to us? Sure, you may say a time to rethink and figure out something different, or maybe even a time to focus on how we got here and better ways in the future to adjust! What if I said to you it also is a time and opportunity to exercise our faith?! Not only faith in the Lord (and we all know that’s the main thing), but also faith in each other! If you study this passage of scripture, what will you see? You see an influx of people coming to the church and being ministered to, but while this increase was happening, it also created an issue. Some people were being left out! So what was the solution to the problem? Was the answer to close the doors and stop allowing people to join? Did the apostles sit back and ignore what was happening and act as if there was no issue? No, they grabbed the mature men in the church and said out of you all, we want you to pick 7, and you all take on the issues we are faced with.

Now I know you think I forgot the qualifications; I didn’t; we will pray for all of those to be found in our church. However, they solved the problems they had by having faith in God, by trusting each other and working together! Christ Bible Church, can I ask you a question? Do you see any needs? You know we do. Can you join me as we pray for more men in the church to step up and take on more responsibility and help with the daily distributions?

Challenge
Are you a man and not serving the church? Would you sign up to serve?
If you are not a man, would you pray and encourage the men who you see serving?