New Article: God Gets There First

The disciples saw the problem and then Jesus made it worse.

A huge crowd has spent the entire day in a remote area listening to Jesus preach. As nightfall came, the disciples urged Jesus to let the people go so that they could find something to eat. “You give them something to eat” Jesus replied. That seemed ridiculous! More than five thousand people had gathered to hear Jesus. The disciples replied that giving each person even a little bread would take more than eight months' wages. You likely know the rest of the story. Jesus took what they had, five loaves of bread and two fish, multiplied it and fed all the people with lots left over (Mark 6:30-44).

The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). It has been used to remind us that God can use the little we have and make it into much more than we could ever imagine. This event teaches us that there is no problem too big for God to handle. Those are good lessons, but there is one more that I want to highlight.

When John records this story, he tells it a little differently. Instead of the disciples noticing that the people were hungry, John says that it was Jesus who first pointed out the problem. John 6:5 says, “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” The next verse provides the best lesson of all. It says, “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do” (verse 6).

Did you catch that? Before the disciples realized that there was a problem, Jesus had a plan. Before they started worrying, Jesus had the solution. He always has a plan. You may feel lost, but nothing about your life confuses Christ. He has answers to the questions that we have not even asked yet.

We always have help and hope!

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:8).

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