Meager Meal or Leftovers Galore?

Do you think God sometimes asks us stuff to see how we will answer? He already knows our response, but I believe he puts it out there because there is something to be learned by us hearing our response. Five loaves and a few fish - will that feed a crowd of over 5,000 men? Not if we only see the loaves and fish for what they are - we need to see them through God's eyes. We see the limits in our answers, but God sees the immense possibilities when we place the 'answers' into his hands. 

Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. (John 6:5-11)

Philip saw the crowd in comparison to what was at THEIR disposal - Jesus saw the offered food in comparison to what was at HIS disposal! We 'know' God will do something, even when the offering is meager in our eyes, but we just don't know 'how' he will do it, so we hesitate a bit. It isn't that we don't believe he can 'multiply' the little we offer, it is that we see the crowd before we see the potential in his words and his touch!

If the crowd represents the overwhelming task that is right in front of us, then the offered loaves and fish represents our abilities and talents. Even the smallest of abilities in his hands can be multiplied beyond what we could ever imagine. When was all said and done that day, twelve entire baskets of food remained. When we put what we have into his hands, he will ALWAYS do more with it than we imagined, but there will be an 'overflow' blessing in everything he touches!

Did it ever stop to occur to you that God desires to increase your faith at the same time as he is manifesting his power? We might think our faith has to be huge in order to see his power on display in our lives, but that meager meal was definitely not 'huge' in comparison to the crowd's hunger. If we want to see God do 'huge' things in and through us, it begins with offering him the very things we have at our disposal and then seeing how he will use them for his glory. Just sayin!

Credit - do you need it?

Throughout my various careers, I have often run into individuals who think taking credit for what they have done is so very important. They want to see their names included in the research articles, or their names brought forward as the creator of the idea. To be transparent here, I know I have given away more ideas than I ever knew I had in my time on this earth - all with little or no 'credit' to speak of and so have you. I wonder what would have happened if Jesus had come out of that tomb so many years ago and looked for the walkway conversations, mealtime gatherings, and town hall discussions to all proclaim what a wonderful thing he had just accomplished on our behalf? He might have been sorely disappointed to find there were still all those who just didn't think he served any purpose in their lives!

But beware of doing your good actions in the sight of men, in order to attract their gaze; if you do, there is no reward for you with your Father who is in Heaven. (Matthew 6:1)

You may have heard the old adage, "No good deed goes unpunished." It is a sad commentary on the state of our human hearts - we do good, but sometimes we don't get good in return! What is more important to keep in mind is that when we 'do good' we aren't doing it for the accolades or to be noticed for what we have done, but because it is the right thing to do! This is the principle Jesus lived by - do good unto others and don't dwell on the 'credit' you receive or don't receive. In fact, there were times Jesus asked those he healed to NOT proclaim what he had just done, but to just live in the joy and liberty of their 'new life'. 

Good actions are the 'right' actions - no doubt about it. Will every good action result in another good action being returned. No! You can count on that one! The moment Jesus took those last steps toward the cross, he knew all his 'good actions' on behalf of all sinners for all time would not be acknowledged by some. He knew there would be those who'd reject his work, who'd want to find a way to do things for themselves. It never stopped him from doing ALL he set out to do, though. When you really think about it, he did it in hopes his actions would change the lives of those who'd actually CLAIM his actions as their OWN! Jesus showed us, we don't 'do' things for the credit - we do them for the satisfaction of having done a thing well. Just sayin!