Text: Mark 8:14-21
The disciples looked out, and they said, “How can we get enough money “to buy bread for all these people? They looked out and said, “How can we even find bread “in this desolate place?”
Worry is the byproduct of asking the wrong questions. Matthew chapter 6, look at what it says. Jesus says, ‘So do not worry, saying, what shall we eat “‘or what shall we drink?’
If you’re unduly weighed down with worry, is it possibly because you’re asking the wrong questions.
What if there’s another lockdown? What if the kids can’t go back to school, What if I’m made redundant, What if I can’t go on holiday? What if they’re offended? Someone just coughed, What if I have it? What if I lose my pension? What if I lose that? Those are the wrong questions. I’m not saying don’t have wisdom, but worry is often the byproduct of asking the wrong questions.
In both accounts, they asked the wrong questions. But Jesus gave a better question. Here’s the question Jesus asked in both of the miracles. He said, ‘How many loaves do you have?’
Do you know the power of that question? That means stop worrying and focusing on what you do not have and focus on what you do have at your disposal? How many loaves do you have? That’s the question to be asking ourselves. What do we have at our disposal? What has God given us? When you ask, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ that doesn’t lead to worry, that leads to action.
That means you have to do inventory as to what God has given you. Don’t let the enemy make you focus on what you’ve lost in the last nine months.
It was in the process of looking for the loaves that they found that they had some fish as well. It is in the process of taking inventory on what God had given us that we discover we’ve got something extra.
If we stop complaining about what we don’t have and start giving God thanks and be grateful for what we do have, we will find some fish.
It was too little in their hands. In both of the miracles, in their hands, it wasn’t enough.
And isn’t that what all of us feel like? Have You ever looked at the demand in front of you and looked at what was in your hands and just had this feeling of it’s not enough.
The reality is, it will never be enough. We will never be enough as long as it’s in our hands but God is calling you to take what is not enough and to put it in His hands. But as long as it’s in our hands, it will never be enough because in our hands, we’re trying to control it. And if 2020 has taught us anything, it is that we are not in control. We’ve got to get it out of our hands and put it in His hands.
This is possibly the most inefficient miracle ever. You have thousands of people and 12 men to disperse to thousands of people.
The multiplication happened in the interaction. Can you see them passing the bread and fish around nervously because it’s not multiplying yet but they’re passing and trying to keep it cool and have conversations like, “Hey, how you doing? “Yeah, take a piece, no, not that big a piece.
Sometimes we forget the goodness and the faithfulness of God. We forget. Forget to remember but it is actually a little bit deeper than that. It was the price. They looked out and said, “Where can we get enough? “I think this would take half a year’s wages.” It was the price.
The feeding of the 4,000 was a field trip to help them see people they didn’t normally see. During this season of craziness and chaos our prayer should be “Lord, help me see people I don’t usually see,” because they need bread, too.Isn’t it amazing how you can see people with addictions a certain way until somebody in your family has an addiction? Isn’t it strange how sometimes you can walk to a place and not even be concerned about where they have lifts or whether there’s too many stairs until someone close to you has a disability?
Thank God for the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000, because you know what he was trying to do with the disciples? What he did with the bread, he took it, he blessed it, he broke it and then he multiplied it. That’s what God wants to do with our life. He wants to take us, bless us, break us, so that, ultimately, our life can touch somebody else’s and sometimes it’s in the breaking. He’ll make us see people we don’t usually see.
Don’t forget to remember that God wants to take you, bless you and break you and multiply you so that you will share who he is, the bread of life, to the entire world who is hungry, hungry for Him.