“When I fed the five loaves to the five thousand…
When I fed the seven loaves to the four thousand…
…were there not left-overs?”
Jesus had demonstrated his ability to more than supply human needs on these two different occasions in the presence of His disciples. Yet, they (the disciples) were worried about not having bread for their trip and worse still, they misinterpreted Jesus warning about the teaching of the Pharisees to be a rebuke for their forgetfulness to take bread along for the trip!
The master of the universe, El-shaddai, the multi-breasted one- God who is more than enough was saying to them here- “remember the occasions of old when I made provisions for human needs out of nothing?”
The baskets of left-overs which Jesus instructed them to collect after the miracles of feeding so many was considered insignificantly small by the disciples though they were meant to serve as monuments; reminders of God’s mighty power. They were never supposed to doubt His ability to meet their needs; yet, here they were like many of us being very anxious and worried over bread. They had the fountain, the bread of life with them and they were worrying about the supply of bread, while Jesus wanted their hearts on more spiritual things. How could they have taught that He whose meat was to do the will of the Father was rebuking them for bread? However, we all fall into this error many times, rather than trust God to supply our physical needs while we learn spiritual truths at His feet; we beg and plead for crumbs forgetting that we are children and ALL that our Father has is ours! At moments, when we forget the works of God, and distrust the ability of our King, displaying no faith, we ought to chide ourselves like Jesus did his disciples.
This year, stay in the place of trust in God for your needs and that of your family as a whole; do not waste useful time debating whose fault it is that there is just one loaf of bread when you have the chief-multiplier who has proved himself more than sufficient on your side. Instead, take the spiritual lessons He’ll have you learn and stop being so physical in your reasoning. Think more than enough at all times, because our God is more than able to take care of you and any deficiency you may perceive in your life and he’ll rather have you in the place of worship and receptivity to his voice than hearing your groaning for what He’s already provided. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees who care more for physical appearances than what is on the inside, take time to get rooted and built up in the grace that’s for you in Christ so you can be a greater blessing to all around you.
Scripture references: Matthew 16:5-12, Mark 8:14-21, 1Timothy 6:17-19, Romans 8:32, Colossians 2:6,7
-Dr ifelayo ojo
