We learn how to be truly resourceful when we tap into God’s provision for our lives. Jesus taught this to his disciples so specifically in this well-known passage when He fed a multitude of 5, 000 people; a miraculous and mysterious event in the life of Jesus’s ministry.
Over the years there have been two important principles I have learned from God that help me tap into His provision. The first is the necessity of trusting that God can and will provide. Often, I am so linear in my thinking about how provision will come. I can relate to the disciples in this passage in Mark when they ask Jesus, wait, are “we” supposed to spend all our money to feed all these people? I might see a need either that I have for myself or the need of another person and if I cannot see logically how to provide for the need, sometimes it reveals a lack of trust in God to provide. And yet, Jesus in this passage says to the disciples in verse 37, “You give them something to eat!” So what happens here? Jesus is actually inviting the disciples (and us!) to join Him in meeting this need for the many.
But how do we do that? The second important principle we must learn is that we need to believe that God can do a lot with the very little that we bring to Him. Jesus said to His disciples, go and get what you do have to offer. In this instance it was five loaves of bread and only two fish…it was a little in light of how many there were to feed. However, we see in this passage that God can do a lot, in fact a miraculous “a lot” with the little we bring to Him. He invites us to join Him, tapping into the provision He wants to bring to our lives, but we first have to be willing to take to Him what we have, even if in our limited human minds we might not see how it can fully meet the need.
So my question for you and for me…what are your five loaves and two fish that you need to give to Jesus today? You have no idea how God might want to multiply it to bless someone. It could be your time, your money, your talent…whatever it is, and however little you think it might be, consider joining with Jesus to tap into His provision of what He can do with it to bless another.
