Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?" John 6:5 |
What an interesting scene. Jesus, the Man of miracles is seated with His disciples, and He asks them where to buy bread. Philip says that the money they have will not even buy a little for each one. Then Andrew announces that a young boy has five barley loaves and two small fish. It seems that the disciples give up rather quickly knowing that they will not of themselves be able to satisfy the hunger of the crowd. Andrew even asks about the fish and bread, "What are they among so many?"
At that point Jesus told the disciples to have everybody sit down. When I read this I sense anticipation in the words of the disciples. They knew Jesus was going to do something special. They just didn't know what.
And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. (John 6:11)
As believers in Christ, we too can look with anticipation to the Lord as we desire to see Him meet the needs of many. The disciples knew they could not meet the needs of these people, and that is a good thing. We can only look to Jesus to see the needs of others met. We can love people, but our love will eventually run out. We can pray and give and help, but we have only so many words and only limited resources and only little bits of time to spare. We can meet peoples needs with our own strength, but what we have to give won't last.
When the five thousand men were full, Jesus told the disciples to ""Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost." (John 6:12) Jesus' men got to see that when He meets a need he meets it in abundance with no effort. Oh that we could trust in Jesus for our needs, physical, familial, financial and otherwise. His baskets remain full, he could have fed fifty thousand and still had bread left over for the size of the need is irrelevant to an Almighty God.
If any one of the disciples doubted Jesus, all they had to do was pick up a basket of faith and start eating.
"The just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)
2 comments:
HE is being meeting my needs!
For a second I don't know where it comes from... then I look to HIM and around me... and I realize God is using his people to bless me!
Thank you LORD! Because of your crumbs I've being filed abundantly, with more than I need!
He does meet our needs, and the baskets are always full with the Lord. You can look at the baskets as signs of faith but also in a way signs of unbelief, because the people afterwards though they were full physically, did not have the spiritual hunger to look beyond their present situation to the bread of life.
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