Don’t limiting God!
Matt.14:13-21
By Ysrael De la Cruz
“Indescribable, uncontainable You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing, God. All powerful, untamable; Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing, God” We sing about how great our God is but at times I believe we show a limited perspective on him. Sometimes we live as if our problems or situations are bigger than him. God has revealed himself in Scripture so we get to know who he is, and we could broaden our outlook on him.
The four gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, give us their own perspective on the life of Jesus. Each one of them wrote to a different audience; this is one of the reasons why they chose what stories to cover or what miracles to include. For instance, John is the only one who tells us about the miracle of turning water into wine. The four writers shared their perspectives in telling us about the miracle in which Jesus fed more than 5,000 men (not counting women and children)
Matt.14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15
I will take the account of Matthew. (Matt.14:13-21)
Matthew placed this event right after the death of John the Baptist; right when Jesus’ ministry was truly booming. He would spend hours teaching the crowds in parables. Everywhere Jesus went, the crowds would follow. At one time, he taught them by the sea shore and it was already getting late.
When it was evening (v.15) the disciples came to Jesus with a suggestion.
“This is a desolate place, and the day is now over, send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” (ESV)
This suggested to Jesus to shorten his lesson since it was already late. The disciples saw a problem keeping the crowds around since it was late in a desolate place.
Jesus’s answer was not what the disciples expected. (v.16) “You give them something to eat.”
You find a way to feed all these people. This would certainly stress out the apostles. This was not what they were thinking Jesus would say.
John tells us the responses of some of the disciples to this dilemma. (John 6:1-15)
Philip (v.7) “200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” (A denarius was a day’s payment)
Andrew found a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. “But what are they for so many.” (v.9)
We have only five loaves here and two fish (Matt.14:17) This is all we have, and this is not enough.
Jesus said: “Bring them to me.” (v.18)
You and I can relate to the disciples; at times we come across a problem that it seems too complicated, too big for us to solve; but Jesus is calling us to bring it to him.
Jesus had the crowd sit down and he multiplied the loaves and the fish.
(v.20) They all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. (v.21) There were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Of something that was not enough in our eyes, Jesus made it more than enough.
We must learn not to limit God with our problems or lack of resources.
How often have I heard people say, well, we don’t have enough resources to do xyz. Not enough money, food or supplies. God is saying ‘what you have is more than enough, bring it to me and I will show you.’ What you have is enough for me to do an amazing job.
Nothing remains ordinary in the hands of God, our resources are enough in the hands of the master. Place your worries, your finances, your goals, your resources and even yourself in his hands and watch what he would do. Out of one meal, he fed thousands. Out of nothing, he created a world, out of clay he created humanity. He makes incredible things. Imagine what God could do with you when you place yourself in his hands. Never limit God with your perspectives; he is boundless. The talents and gifts he gave you are enough for him to use. The resources you have right now is all he needs to do amazing things in you and through you. Never underestimate what our amazing God can do with what we have and willingly place what we have into his hands. Nothing remains ordinary in the hands of God.
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