Only 5 loaves of Bread and 2 fish

I love the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 in Matthew 14. Acutually, it was more like 10,000 people, if you count the women and children, probably more. You only have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. What would you do in that situation?

Or, let's say you lost your job and your mortagage or rent is due in one week, and you've only got $30 in your checking account. What do you do?

Or you have a job but your electric and heating bill has gone through the roof and your children have been sick and you've had to fork out money for medicine and doctors and your electric company is going to shut off your power in one week if you don't pay. What do you do?

When presented with the problem of feeding 10,000 people, Jesus' disciples did the following:

1. Tried to get rid of the problem by ignoring it (They told Jesus to send the people away)

2. They only looked at natural means to solve the problem (They told Jesus it would take 200 Denari to feed all the people)

3. They laughed at the impossibility of the task (Disbelief)

How often do we do that? We sit and wallow in our problems, complaining and fearful, trying to solve them on our own? And sort of laughing inside when people tell us that God can help us. We look at the impossibility of the task and our faith falters. But we forget how Big our God is!

I love the innocence of the little boy who came forward to offer his lunch. Think about it for a moment. He could have kept it to himself. He could have reasoned that there would be no way to feed everyone with what he had and he might as well eat it himself. But he didn't. He went forward and gave all he had to Jesus. He trusted it in God's hands and believed He could do something big with it.

Then Jesus "looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples"

And what did the disciples do? (they listened to God and obeyed him, even though they probably didn't completely believe that he could do it)

Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

What can we learn from this?

1. Bring your problem to Jesus.
2. Surrender what you have to God. It may not be much, but give it to him.
3. Then, like Jesus, give thanks for what you have and believe God can mulitply it.

4. Obey whatever God tells you to do

If you have gotten yourself into a bad situation due to your own poor planning and negligence, then be aware God may not grant you an easy way out. He may be trying to teach you something. But I guarantee that if you come to Him and surrender your problem and your will and you truly put Him first, HE WILL HELP YOU. He can't do otherwise, It would be against His nature. I know many of us are struggling in this bad economy. But those of us who follow Jesus need not worry. Our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. All He asks is that we come to Him, put Him first in our lives, and believe He can do what He says He can do.

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread Psalm 37:25

"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and All these things shall be added unto you." Matt 6:33