“Do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”
– Jesus to the disciples (Mark 8:18-20)
So many of us live the Christian life as “sight-seers” – cruising along between emotional highs, always trusting in what we see now rather than the invisible answer God has for us down the road. In unbelief and short-sightedness, we allow ourselves to be overtaken by fear and the swelling doubt that maybe God won’t come through and provide this time. Our problems seem insurmountable to us, even though we may have faced even bigger problems in the past and in those times experienced God’s hand of provision.
Jesus’ question reminds the disciples of two of the most extraordinary miracles that He ever performed: the feeding of the 5000 men on one occasion and the feeding of 4000 men on the other. Even after they saw His miraculous power in those instances, they shortly found themselves in a much smaller crisis – they only had one loaf of bread between them and didn’t want to go hungry. Concerned and upset over their little dilemma, they began to worry about the bread they longed to have, while the Bread of Life was standing before them. Patiently but firmly, Jesus reminded them of the ways He had always provided in the past, and basically said, “Why are you worried about that? Don’t you remember what I did last time?”
As we confront the everyday worries and problems of life, we so quickly forget the ways that God has taken care of us in the past, choosing instead to concentrate only on the here and now. Jesus tells us not to worry, but instead, to remember what He did last time, and to believe that He will work out things again. If He can deliver us from the biggest problems, He can work out the smaller trials as well, if we’ll remember… and believe again.
written by Trevin Wax © 2008 Kingdom People blog
