Remember our story of Jesus yesterday and the 5000+ people gathered to see and hear Him? He was tired. He was hungry. But He had compassion on them even after a long, long day, and He started teaching them, just like you would expect Jesus to do. He ranks on the top of the list for self-sacrifice, wouldn't you agree? Well to continue that story from the book of Mark -- it got to be late in the afternoon...now if you recall, even Jesus' disciples had not had a moments rest and they had not had a chance to eat. All those hungry men...I can just imagine they were starting to get a bit ornery - hunger does that to folks. So the disciples approach Jesus and suggest that He send all the people away so they (the people) can go to the town to buy something to eat. But Jesus, has other plans..."Oh noooo," He says, "You feed them!" Whaaaaat!?!?!?! Right away the disciples start in with all the reasons they can't do that...we don't have enough money, where would we find enough food for all these people? "C'mon, Jesus, get real," they must have been thinking. Jesus, the problem solver said something like this, "You are right this is a lot of people to feed, but how much bread do we have here among the people? Go find out." First of all, He hears what they are saying and then He tells them - don't assume you can't do this, go check...do your research. So they do. They come back and report that all they can find among the people are five loaves of bread and two fish. In their minds, I imagine they are thinking - like this is going to be any help in feeding 5000+ people. I am sure they were skeptical to say the least. (Paraphrased by me from Mark 6:35-38)
I know there have been many times I was skeptical that God was going to do a work. Take our move to Idaho for example. We had prayed and felt certain we had God's blessing to move to Idaho. We had our kids blessing to move. Everything was perfect. We worked night and day to get our home in California ready to sell. We had help from friends and family. Everything was blipping along exactly as we thought it was going to because we had confirmation from God that we were doing the right thing - doing what He wanted us to. The real estate folks thought our home was gorgeous and would sell above market value and so we went with it. Finally the day came and the sign went up - For Sale! And then the house sat - For Sale! No prospects for the first two weeks. The 3rd week we had people come and see it - many thought it was perfect for them but we had no offers. So we reduced the price. Still it sat - For Sale! 1 month, 2 months...This is when the skepticism came in. I prayed, "Lord isn't this what you wanted? I don't understand." He answered with the verses, "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 and "Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3 "Ok, Lord," I said, "I will keep trusting, I will keep waiting for the great and mighty things that I don't know about." But it was hard when everything was taking so long. In looking back in my journal from that period of time, I prayed over and over that He would be glorified through whatever happened with our home. In my journal I wrote, "Father do your thing - so that it is undeniably Your hand at work, Your will, Your desire for us, Your miracle." And finally, at the 11th hour, He did. We had made the decision that we were leaving town on March 30th whether the house was sold or not. This we felt was also ordained and directed by God. So we went with it. Who are we to argue with God? Right? On March 7th, we got an offer on the house - all cash - uh oh, I am getting goose bumps again...this is so amazing...all cash, nothing to fix, no added expenses, an 'as is' purchase to close on March 30th!!! God's timing is always PERFECT!!! And when everything was said and done, we walked away with more than we had even hoped for. More than we could ever ask or imagine as the verse says. "Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we could ask or imagine." Ephesians 3:20 In my Bible next to that verse I have written, 'Go to Him with positive expectations.' Truly, He has never failed to keep His promises to me or my family.
Now, back to our Bible story: Just like in my families story, in this Bible story, Jesus does an amazing work...a miracle. I am thinking He had this planned all along, just like with our house. First He tells the disciples to have everyone sit down in groups of 50 or 100. (He is so organized!!) Then Jesus takes the five loaves and two fish, and looks up to heaven and blesses them. He then starts breaking the bread and handing it to the disciples so they could pass it to the people. He does the same with the fish. Everyone - all 5000+ people - shared the five loaves and two fish. They all ate and ate and ate until they were full - kind of like a person feels after Thanksgiving dinner. And afterward the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. TWELVE! They ended up with way more than they even needed. (Paraphrased by me from Mark 6: 39 - 44) Way more than they could have asked for or imagined. (Ephesians 3:20 again)
When God is involved, and we know that He is guiding and directing, that He is in charge, why do we doubt, even for a moment? Why did the disciples doubt that Jesus could feed all those people with what little food they had available? They knew Jesus. They had first hand knowledge of His power. Why did I doubt for a second that our house was going to be sold? I think sometimes, when we doubt it is because we can't see the possibilities. We are blinded by our human limitations. I think this was true in the case of the disciples. They were too busy thinking about why the people couldn't be fed. Other times we doubt because we get impatient. We don't see things happening as fast as we hoped or even see anything at all happening. This was true in the case of me and our house. Whatever the reasoning for your doubt, the important thing is to get past it. God understands. Talk to Him about it. Own up to it and let it go - release "it" to Him - what ever "it" is. He has it covered - He is handling "it".
With a little faith and a little trust it will all work out! I know from experience.
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, 'May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart." Mark 11:22-23
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