Mark 8:1-8 “During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. Seven,” they replied.

He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When He had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; He gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”

The first thing I noticed about this scripture today was this – if this had been one of our church meetings, I wonder if we would have noticed that these people needed feeding? To be totally honest with you, maybe we would have been too busy examining the size of the crowd! Jesus was concerned for these faithful people because they had to walk home and some of them had walked a long way. We need to watch out for opportunities to minister to, and help people in practical ways.

Meanwhile, my first honest question to myself, was whether I would have even stayed at a meeting that went for so long?! That was some sermon, they had been together for three days of non-stop teaching. Most of us would call that an extraordinary meeting! However, the Lord Jesus saw it as His responsibility to physically feed these sheep. It is a good thing to appreciate people who care about practical things – they are vindicated right here in this scripture. Meanwhile, it doesn’t say these people were followers of Jesus but He fed them anyway!

My next thought was, it can be very easy to get stuck on the question about how the bread and fish were multiplied? Did it multiply in the disciple’s hands, or the Lord’s hands? Some times we can get so busy trying to figure out how things happened … instead of looking at the fact that the natural world obeyed the spiritual one! Maybe we can get so tied up in who did, or said what – hoping to figure out the circumstances and duplicate them – that we can miss what GOD actually did. He revealed His heart toward ordinary people and provided for them. When you read the bible carefully, you will see that Jesus did that all the time!

Almighty God saw the people’s need of nourishment and He provided for them, practically. Remember, Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing. This shows us that our God takes care of His kids. He does not sleep. There are not big needs and little needs, our God cares about all our needs. He knows the pain you’ve been going through, and He cares for you. Don’t believe the lies the enemy keeps telling you – just because nothing has changed that does not mean Father God doesn’t care. The Holy Spirit is already working on your behalf to change everything together for your good. 

Our God doesn’t PATCH things! HE MAKES THEM NEW. Patches tear – but the Lord makes things new. That’s because the new … stretches. Trust me, we are going to all need to be pliable in His hands in the days ahead of us. The Lord Jesus kept getting cranky at His disciples, because they continually looked at the natural situation, and they didn’t see the stuff that was going on around them through the eyes of faith. The eyes of faith know that God is doing something – maybe we dunno what it is – but we know He IS doing something. 

Our faith is exceedingly precious to Him. One of the ways we nurture it, is by believing He is good, when everything around us looks terrible. Another way to nurture faith is to use it. I’m guessing most of that crowd present that day had no idea they were eating a miracle! I’ve thought a lot about this. So many times in my life, I thought what was happening at that time would be the end of me – but it wasn’t… God was doing something else. He was working those things together for my good. 💕

We must not dismiss the miracles in the Gospels as simply “stories” because when we do that we miss the greater message. We are not reading some “Boy’s own book of adventures” – we are reading God’s personal history and interaction with mankind – plus man’s response to Him. If God cared that much about Gideon or Jonah don’t you think He cares about what is happening to you? In Hebrews the writer calls the Old Testament men and women, heroes of the faith. Personally I call them examples of how Almighty God deals with individuals! 

The Lord Jesus fed those thousands of men, women and children spiritually, but that did not preclude the fact that physically they also had pressing needs. They were hungry. I think today, He is looking at you and I and saying: “feed them” – just like He told His disciples on the side of that hill. There are plenty of hungry people around us, and it will take lots of faith to reach them, but that’s OK, the precious Holy Spirit is pure faith in action. Bye. 👋🏻