God of all power,
Remind us that You emptied Yourself to satisfy us.
God over all creation,
Remind us that when the earth was formless and void,
You formed, fashioned, and filled it.
God of all provision,
When the image of empty shelves sends our stomachs plummeting in fear,
Remind us that
When Jesus was hungry,
Alone in the desert for 40 days,
With neither a crumb of bread
nor a drop of water to cross his lips,
The tempter tried
To manipulate Jesus’ hunger into grasping and hoarding,
To use His power to take stone and transform it into bread,
But Jesus knew his true need,
And ours alike:
“Man does not live by bread alone
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
God of five loaves and two fishes,
Teach us to trust You enough to bring what we have
That we might see you multiply our paltry supply
That we would believe we have enough to share
And leftovers besides.
God of self-giving love,
Remind us that the two greatest commandments are to love You
and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Out of love for You,
and love for our neighbor,
Help us to buy, not in excess, but to bless our neighbor as ourselves.
Amen.
