Approximately two thousand years ago, there was a young boy who brought some bread and fish to a Revival Meeting with the Messiah. Over five thousand other people where there, and not a single one of them thought to bring a snack. They spent the day listening to Jesus teach and watching Him heal the sick. Overall, a good meeting. As the time wore on, it became closer and closer to dinner time (or supper if you are from the Galilean ‘Midwest’), and the folks were getting hungry. The disciples, in their infinite financial wisdom, told Jesus to send them home because the Ministry team could not afford to give everyone food. No concession stands, no convenience stores, no street vendors, just a big, hungry crowd. Jesus looked at them and gave them a command that must have caused them great anxiety… “You feed them”. The disciples were thinking about themselves and the difficulty of ministering to thousands of people, Jesus was thinking about the people.
The first step towards a miracle is compassion. Caring about the people in need. God doesn’t perform miracles in order to look spectacular (though it certainly establishes His God credentials). He sees a need and longs to fill it. Whether it’s a spiritual or a physical need, Gods desire is to meet and exceed that need.
Sometimes we are asked to give a little seed… to let God have something from us that He can then anoint and use. Like the boy with the five loaves of bread and two fishes, there was not enough to do the job of feeding five thousand. Not in the boy’s hands. Not in the disciples hands. Not in our hands. But the compassion and anointing of Jesus took what was small and insignificant, and turned it into a miracle.
Sometimes we think we aren’t enough. That we aren’t anointed enough, not good enough, not smart enough, not Christian enough, that we don’t know enough Scripture, thinking “I’m only me… what can I do by myself?”.
God’s provision in Matt 14 came from the unlikely source of a small boy who had some bread and fish. But once these were brought to Jesus, once He “touched” them, grace and power happened. It is true that what we have might be small. But if we bring that to Him, He makes it more than enough. God asks us to be involved, to contribute what little we have, then He touches it and makes it glorious, powerful and anointed to provide, heal and deliver.
In the boy’s case, a normal sized basket or bowl was not enough to hold the blessings of God after Jesus blessed the bread and fish. After Jesus touches us, a normal bowl isn’t enough… we need an overflowing Super Bowl to hold the blessings of God in our lives.
The paradox is that, just like the boy in Matthew, when you give what you have, sometimes all you have, thinking “now I won’t have anything left”, you end up with more than you started. Plus, you have been used by God to bless those around you. . A win for God, a win for the people and a win for you.