Lessons on Impossibilities
Today I’m reprinting the daily devotional from Intouch in it’s entirety. I felt this entry from my friend Charles Stanley was just to powerful to change in any way.
John 6
Jesus Feeds Five Thousand
1 After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 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?” 6He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.
7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”
8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 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. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.
14 When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!”
God’s Word is a treasure for many reasons—one being that it’s so practical. The stories and principles found in the Gospels are just as applicable today as they were in Jesus’ day. We’ve all experienced times when our backs are to the wall, our problem seems to have no solution, and we don’t know what to do. When that happens, we need to remember that impossible situations are opportunities for the Lord to teach us valuable lessons that we’d never learn any other way.
God’s supremacy trumps human resources. When Jesus asked, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” (v. 5), Philip quickly recognized his own inadequacy. Although Christ knew all along what He would do, He was teaching His disciples that the perfect plan and the power to implement it come only from God, not from human solutions and resources.
The Lord often requires our participation. Even though Christ could have spoken bread into existence, He chose to use people to achieve His purpose. Andrew scouted around for food, a young boy gave up his small lunch, and the disciples organized the crowd and distributed the food Jesus handed them. Each step required trust and obedience, especially since Christ’s method seemed so illogical.
God knows how to solve your problem, but He may choose to require your cooperation, possibly even asking you to do something that seems unreasonable. But whenever we yield our flawed solutions and meager resources to Him and step out in obedience, He does great things in us and through us.
*Postscript, I’ve learned in my own life the truth in that last paragraph, God does know how to solve our problems and he may well choose have us be a part of that solution, and when He asks you to do something that seems unreasonable, remember what He could do with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish!
the pilgrim
*Photo Note: Nikon D7000 with the 24-120 AF-S VR.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
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Bill, what a great post… This is one of my favorite accounts in the Gospels. The story of Jesus’ miracle of the loaves and fishes is a story of hope and encouragement; a story we must hear and cling to in our current world situation. It seems like we don’t have much to offer in the face of all our problems. We are like the disciples, facing some big problems with not very much in our hands. But with Jesus, what we have to give will be enough. Compared to the magnitude of the need, our gifts are indeed small, but they will be enough. The one who made 5 loaves and 2 fish feed 5000 people will take what we offer and multiply it. He will take what we give and make it more. It’s easy to think that we don’t have anything to give, or what we could give is so insignificant as to not be worth bothering with. But if one little boy’s gift of bread and fish made so much difference, certainly what we have to offer can make a difference too.
Really great post Brother…
Ian
I thought the Intouch folks did a great job as well, inspires you to rest in Him!
A classic quoetisn.The kids will eat about 5 fingers each. There are 3 fingers in a standard sandwhich slice, so five fingers is the equivalent of 1 slice plus 2/3 s of another slice. Of course, a sandwhich uses 2 slices of bread (that’s why they call it a sandwhich, after all) so take 1 and 2/3 s times 2 and you get 3 and 1/3 slices per kid -close to a sandwhich and a half. So, for 15 kids you’re talking 15 times 3 and 1/3 slices = 50 slices of bread.Store bought bread comes in various denominations, so look at the loaves and count how many slices in the various kinds and choose your weapon.Now, the adults: some will eat a few sandwhiches and some will have none. Expect that 7 of ten adults will have 3 fingers -which is to say 2 slices of bread, or 1 single regular sandwhich. That means 15 adults will have sandwhiches, and 6 will not (well, they ALL may take something, just to be polite, but it will come out as I predict.) So, that’s 15 adults with 2 slices each = 30 slices. Kids plus adults = 80 slices, or 40 regular sandwhiches.Now, you said FRENCH bread, and I assume you’re talking about the long, narrow, uncut loaves that look sort of like bats. Notice I didn’t tell you to actually BUY the regular bread -just LOOK at it. Once you’ve figured out how much of that you need, then convert to the French bread. Do it by weight. If it takes 3 1/2 lbs of regular bread, then that’s how much French bread you want PLUS one more loaf, because you’ll be tossing out the ends of the French bread loaves, AND you will want a reserve supply in case the company really IS hungry.OK, on to the meat and cheese. Now that you know how many regular sandwiches you WOULD have (40) you can estimate how much meat and cheese, figuring 1 slice of each. And that’s exactly what you ask for at the deli counter: 40 slices of meat and cheese. If you are using a variety (ham, roast beef, swiss and cheddar, etc.) then apportion it accordingly. Probably one bottle of dijon-mayo will do the job.Now, when you make these puppies, make only about half; as people scarf em down, make some more. Have the meat and cheese pre-sliced to finger size so you can make them up quickly. If you need more, you’ve got more, and if you DON’T -enjoy your dinner next day in front of the TV or send care packages home with the guests.
I thought so too, Ian, great words and a great lesson.