Recovered!

In the gospels, we are all probably familiar with the story of the feeding of the five thousand.   There were at least 5000 men, so maybe 15000 or more when you include women and children. The day was ending and the disciples felt the people were getting hungry, and they started looking at the practicality of feeding all those people. (Luke 9 from verse 12, John 6 from verse 5)

The disciples say to Jesus, "Send everyone away so they can go and buy food". Jesus says to Phillip, "Where are they going to get food for all these people?"  Now, John's gospel says Jesus already knew what he was going to do, but a few things happen that are really interesting.  Firstly, Jesus tells them to feed everyone!!  

Can you imagine!  Even think about your church or your family and you’re out and about and someone says to you, "You feed them all"! With what!! The money you have with you isn’t enough to feed you and your children, let alone everyone else.

Why would Jesus say that?  I think Jesus was preparing their hearts to be part of the miracle.   18 other miracles had happened before this one.  The disciples had witnessed healings, raising someone from the dead, the calming of the storm etc.  They could have said, "Ok, Jesus!  You tell us what to do next".  But instead, as they (and we) so often do, they looked purely at the physical circumstances, so when a little kid comes up with his packed lunch and offers to share it, they curse it with their words and say that it's just not enough.

Sometimes we can disregard what we have because we focus on how small or insignificant it is. But Jesus had different ideas.    Instead of looking at the provision and calling it insignificant, Jesus does this:

Luke 9:16
Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.

That’s a great verse.  I love it.    Do you know what that phrase 'LOOKING UP' means?  It means 'to recover sight'.  Now, Jesus wasn't blind, so he wasn't seeing physically; instead, I believe he looked up and recovered his spiritual sight; he saw from a heavenly perspective.  He then blessed what he had and then he gave it to the hands of the disciples. 

There are some great lessons for us right there.   First, we need to not dismiss what we have been given. It may seem small, but we can choose to recover our spiritual sight and see it as potential for God to do great things.   We can bless what we have, knowing that God is a God of multiplication.  And finally, we can then act when he tells us to.  

I don't know when the miracle happened exactly. Did it happen when Jesus broke the bread? Did it happen when the disciples passed it out?   I don't know, but I do know this: if the disciples had stood around discussing whether or not this was going to work, it wouldn't have! 

And the final part of this is that when all was said and done, there was more left over than when they started!   That's the kind of God we serve!

So what have you limited in your life by looking at only what was in your hand?  Today I encourage you, look up!  Look up and recover your spiritual sight, bless what you have and watch the miracles happen more than you can even ask or think (Eph 3:20).



 


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