SMALL THINGS, BIG RETURN

Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God 

and keep us engaged with Him; 

it will take our attention from ourselves 

and give the Spirit room in our hearts."

Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

 October 8, 2024

Psalm 100:4

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

 

Matthew 14:13-21

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

 

The miracle of multiplication is one event I wish I could have witnessed and experienced firsthand. Are there any accounts in the Gospel that you would have liked to see for yourself?

Sometimes I wonder what the atmosphere was like when

Jesus turned the water into wine,
or healed people from leprosy,
or stopped the flow of blood from the woman bleeding for twelve years,
or took the hand of a little girl who had died and said “Lamb arise”.

Imagine for a moment the experience of being where Jesus was, surrounded by crowds eager for a miracle, a profound teaching, or simply to pose a question. I'm sure I would have several questions myself, wouldn't you?

Jesus led His life in constant awareness of God's presence. He exemplified a life lived in nearness to God, dedicating His existence to glorifying God and displaying "God's Works." His compassion and care for others never waned. He was ever-present, focused on the moment. I believe that the cornerstone of this way of life was Jesus's ability to be grateful in all circumstances.

Have you ever noticed that before Jesus would confront some major undertaking in his ministry with time spent in prayer early in the mornings or late at night? Prayer was Jesus’ intimate connection to His Father, a connection that we have today as well. Don’t ever forget that! Jesus never attempted to do anything for the Kingdom of God without spending important moments in the “quiet place,” the “secret place,” a “remote place” where he could be truly alone, away from distractions, in God’s strengthening and empowering presence.

In our Gospel reading today, we note the story of the feeding of 5,000. What strikes me is that Jesus had little to work with, with only five loaves and two fish he feeds the multitude. When Jesus asked the disciples what they had available, their response was, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.” (Matthew 14:17). They limited the potential of what they had in their hands by using the word only, forgetting whose presence they were in.

I'm not being hard on the disciples. I do that too, don’t you? Don’t we say things like “this is all I have, and it will never be enough.”  You see statements like these were never part of Jesus’ talk, but faith in God’s ability was, and as a result, He brought God into his little, his “only,” and watched God multiply bread and fish. Ah, "little is much when God is in it!"

Jesus called for the loaves and fish, and Jesus we read, gave thanks for the little, and the supernatural happened. The five loaves did not multiply in abundance at once. There were not baskets of bread for the disciples to pass out all of the sudden, no, and this is so so important, the multiplication happened with the loaves, the “only five loaves," as the disciples obeyed and followed Jesus directions, and as the people broke the bread it just replenished itself. 

I am learning, that when we are thankful for the little we have in our hands, we may not see an abundance all at once, but we will experience God's amazing outcomes as we faithfully trust and obey. Our Gospel reading says that God provided, multipied the "only", with leftovers!!  The key, for each of us as Jesus followers is to remain thankful as God continues to supply all our needs. Remember this line "Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks."

 

“My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Amen

Philippians 4:19