Bring It to Him

A little boy was asked what his favorite Bible story was. He said, “I like the one where everyone loafs and fishes.”

Now, that is not exactly what happened, but it is a great story. Chronologically, Jesus was at the peak of His ministry. His popularity was spreading, and multitudes of people were anxiously following Him.

A large crowd had gathered to hear Him, and they were hungry. And interestingly, the Bible tells us that Jesus had compassion on them.

What’s fascinating is these people weren’t following Jesus because they believed He was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. Rather, they were following Him because of the miracles that He was performing.

John 6:2 points out, “A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick” (NLT). Essentially, these people were thrill seekers. They were in it to be dazzled, to be entertained.

Yet even though these people were fickle and perhaps had mixed motives, Jesus felt compassion for them. Compassion isn’t just caring; it is caring enough to do something.

Jesus saw that they were hungry, and He cared about them. To the disciples, these people were an embarrassment and a burden. But to Jesus, they were a calling and an opportunity.

John’s Gospel identifies three others in this story: Philip, Andrew, and a little boy. This was a test for Philip. Jesus asked him, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” (John 6:5 NLT).

Obviously, Jesus didn’t need help in this regard. But He wanted to see if Philip would come up with the right answer, which would have been something along these lines: “Well, that is not a problem, Jesus. You’re God in human form. You can materialize food. Just as God sent manna down to the Israelites in the wilderness, You could materialize money to go buy food. Remember the time You pulled that coin from the fish’s mouth?”

Philip, however, didn’t know what to do. So, he replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” (verse 7 NLT).

We could look at this and say, “Well, he should have known better.” But do we ever need to relearn things that we’ve supposedly learned? Of course, we do. Does God ever have to retest us? Of course, He does. Sometimes, even when we’ve been walking with the Lord for years, we seem to know so little.

The author of Hebrews says, “You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word” (5:12 NLT).

Maybe, like Philip, you’re going through a test right now. Do you believe that God can take care of you, even when the odds are against it? God will take care of both the big things and the small things. If it matters to you, it matters to God. If it troubles you, it is a concern to God. Bring it to Him.

Click below to receive more daily encouragement from Harvest Ministries.

Receive These Devotions In My Inbox   OR   View Available Resources