Day 57: God Provides, Even If ....
Read: John 6:1 - 14
Few things enrich life like a good friend. To have someone with whom
you can share your deepest thoughts, feelings and longings – someone who
can ask anything of you and of whom you can ask anything – who provides
a wonderful encouragement to the meaning and joy of life. Most people
do not have many close friends. It takes time, trust, and perseverance
to develop meaningful relationships. To have friends, you must be a
friend. But although making and sustaining friendships can be difficult,
the benefits are tremendous. In this season of thanksgiving, in the
face of mankind's greatest needs even if man cannot sufficiently
provide, God's promise is that He will more than sufficiently provide.
The miraculous feeding
of the five thousand. It is the only one of Jesus’ miracles that is
recorded by all four evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God
chose the miraculous provision of food to describe the person and work
of his Son Jesus Christ from four different angles, four different
perspectives. Each author brings a unique point of view to his account
as each writes for a different audience. The audience at the time of the
feeding was a an enormously large crowd that had all gathered from
around the country side to discover what all the hubbub was about. They
had heard of great healing's among the sick of their villages and had
witnessed great wonders.
One of the first things I see from
this story is the gathering of such a large group of people of which
nothing in particular is known or even described. John does not say that
women and children were present in addition to the men; Matthew adds
that detail. Matthew 14.21: “And those who ate were about five thousand
men, besides women and children.” We do not know how many besides, but
it is easy to imagine another 5000 hungry people, or 10,000—probably
more. The questions that I now find myself most curious about are: 1)
What did they do for a living? 2) How many were carpenters, pottery
makers, farmers, crop gatherer's, workers of vineyards? How many of them were slaves?
I
wonder, did it really matter to Jesus what they did? Did it really
matter if they were rich men, poor men, beggars or thieves. Nowhere in
any of the four narratives does it say that Jesus told the disciples to
separate each of those gathered according to their means to pay, job
titles or lack thereof, past histories, touchable or untouchable or any
other measure whereby they might be judged as worthy for this reason or
as unworthy for that reason. In this great season of Thanksgiving we are
tasked to look
beyond what we have, to give even if we know we cannot afford it. We are tasked to give thanks to God everything. Even if it's beyond our means, it's never beyond God's!
Let Us Pray: Heavenly Father I thank you for the promises for provision
in your Word. I thank you for supplying all my needs according to your
riches in glory. I cast all my cares upon you for you care
affectionately for me I thank you. Because you were made poor I have
been made rich. Even if I am judged this way or that by man, even if I
am a butcher, baker or candlestick maker, even if I am filthy or I if I
live on the streets of some anonymous place, If I am employed or
unemployed, If I am judged as something I am or am not, in prison or
free, I look up to you alone as the source of my provision for all my
needs. Even if mankind cannot or will not, I know You will.
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Read: John 6:1 - 14
Few things enrich life like a good friend. To have someone with whom you can share your deepest thoughts, feelings and longings – someone who can ask anything of you and of whom you can ask anything – who provides a wonderful encouragement to the meaning and joy of life. Most people do not have many close friends. It takes time, trust, and perseverance to develop meaningful relationships. To have friends, you must be a friend. But although making and sustaining friendships can be difficult, the benefits are tremendous. In this season of thanksgiving, in the face of mankind's greatest needs even if man cannot sufficiently provide, God's promise is that He will more than sufficiently provide.
The miraculous feeding of the five thousand. It is the only one of Jesus’ miracles that is recorded by all four evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. God chose the miraculous provision of food to describe the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ from four different angles, four different perspectives. Each author brings a unique point of view to his account as each writes for a different audience. The audience at the time of the feeding was a an enormously large crowd that had all gathered from around the country side to discover what all the hubbub was about. They had heard of great healing's among the sick of their villages and had witnessed great wonders.
One of the first things I see from this story is the gathering of such a large group of people of which nothing in particular is known or even described. John does not say that women and children were present in addition to the men; Matthew adds that detail. Matthew 14.21: “And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.” We do not know how many besides, but it is easy to imagine another 5000 hungry people, or 10,000—probably more. The questions that I now find myself most curious about are: 1) What did they do for a living? 2) How many were carpenters, pottery makers, farmers, crop gatherer's, workers of vineyards? How many of them were slaves?
I wonder, did it really matter to Jesus what they did? Did it really matter if they were rich men, poor men, beggars or thieves. Nowhere in any of the four narratives does it say that Jesus told the disciples to separate each of those gathered according to their means to pay, job titles or lack thereof, past histories, touchable or untouchable or any other measure whereby they might be judged as worthy for this reason or as unworthy for that reason. In this great season of Thanksgiving we are tasked to look
beyond what we have, to give even if we know we cannot afford it. We are tasked to give thanks to God everything. Even if it's beyond our means, it's never beyond God's!
Let Us Pray: Heavenly Father I thank you for the promises for provision in your Word. I thank you for supplying all my needs according to your riches in glory. I cast all my cares upon you for you care affectionately for me I thank you. Because you were made poor I have been made rich. Even if I am judged this way or that by man, even if I am a butcher, baker or candlestick maker, even if I am filthy or I if I live on the streets of some anonymous place, If I am employed or unemployed, If I am judged as something I am or am not, in prison or free, I look up to you alone as the source of my provision for all my needs. Even if mankind cannot or will not, I know You will.
http://www.youtube.com/
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