I like to share the stories of how the Lord met and delivered me out of so many difficulties. As I look back on them, they are "a-ha" moments. These are times where the situation was impossible, but God increased my faith, grace, love, or patience to see His hand move. Jesus brought the disciples to that place multiple times. Let's look at one today.
Then Jesus lifted up His eyes and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. John 6:5,6
A great mass of people followed Jesus into "a desert place." Conservative estimates put the actual number of people at 30,000. Most likely, 5000 men, 5000 women, and the average family in Israel at the time had 5-6 children.
The question Jesus asked Philip was a ridiculous one. I can see Jesus asking it with a knowing smile. The villages all around would have never been able to come up with 15,000 loaves of bread and fish to feed all of these people.
Jesus was testing them! I know we don't like to think about that, but often the Lord will walk us directly into impossible situations so we can see the level of our faith. We are not called to be bystanders in the world, but called to actively impact and change it. We can't change our world without moving by faith, and the greater level of faith, the greater level of impact. However, we don't know how limited our faith is until we come against an impossible situation.
Andrew and Philip frantically searched for some kind of food. Andrew brought the five loaves and two fish to Jesus. They were trying to solve a supernatural problem by natural means. The Lord is gracious toward us always. He is the God of multiplication. As a side note, this is part of the reason we should always tithe, give of our time, and our talent, God takes what we give Him and will always multiply it to bless us and so much more than we possibly could on our own.
When faced with an impossible situation, don't make the same mistake Philip did. Worry and fretting will get you nowhere. Instead, rehearse the miracles God has done for you and others. Remember the way the Lord has met you in the past. Trust that if you are in an impossible situation, it is only because God trusts you enough to want to take you deeper and enable you to have a more significant impact to change our world.
I know for many years, people looked at struggles as people having failures in their lives. Yes, it is true for some, but for most of us, God is merely stretching us to trust Him more. He loves and believes in each one of us more than we know but must walk us through these challenging places so we can grow to become everything our hearts are crying out to be! Keep your focus on the opportunity instead of the problem! As a person of faith, God will continue to create opportunities for you to seize them to shirk from them!
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