Fresh Perspective

I was reading the story of the little boy who offered his lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fish to Jesus to use in feeding a crowd of more than 5000 people.

It’s a very familiar story that I’ve read and reflected on many times and as I began to look at it again I asked God to help me see things in this story that would be fresh and would help me in my journey today.

So, here are a couple of things that stood out to me as I read.

The situation was intense.  Lots of hungry people and seemingly no food to feed them.  Jesus asks one of his disciples, Philip, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” (John 6:5)

Philip thinks Jesus is trying to figure out what to do and not sure how to go about dealing with the situation but in fact here’s where Jesus was at.

He (Jesus) was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.

John 6:6

In our interactions with Jesus, I wonder how often He is asking us questions for the same purpose and then I wonder, are we willing to let Jesus do that and work out His purpose in our lives so our faith in Him can be developed and strengthened?

I feel much more secure when I know the plan and see the resources at hand to meet the need.  I know that I need to continue to take each day and each situation as it comes and look to Jesus, allowing Him to speak into that situation and my life in order to experience all God has in mind for me.

Am I willing?  Are you?  Are we willing to live with the unknown and seemingly insufficient and live in steady trust in God’s ability to work for good in it all. 

Another of Jesus’ friends, Andrew was the one who brought the boy, with his lunch to Jesus and his comment was:

“There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

John 6:9

But we know the rest of the story and how it was more than enough in the hands of Jesus to feed all those people and for there still to be 12 baskets of leftovers.

Loving God, You are a generous God who is concerned about our daily needs.  You saw that hungry crowd and You wanted them to get the food to eat that they needed. 

You also saw the spiritual needs of Your disciples and You wanted to help them grow in their faith and trust in Your generosity and power to provide and so You tested them a bit.

I pray that today we would come back to You, again and again, even when we don’t quite get it right at first, and allow You to do in us and around us all that’s needed. 

You are enough.  You have enough.  You share generously with us until we have enough.  Increase our faith to believe today, I pray.  Amen

Let’s enjoy our day today with our generous God.  Have a great day.