When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
John 6:5-7
Jesus asked the disciples how they would feed all those people who were coming toward him. They looked at their insufficient resources, at their empty hands and were filled with despair and anxiety. The disciples forgot who Jesus was and the miracles he had already done, doubted Him with a perspective of limitation and impossibility.
At what point had they forgotten that they were before the son of God? Jesus had just calmed an angry sea and healed several sick people. Was there anything that would be too difficult for Him? Where was the faith of the disciples hidden? Why did they stop looking at the greatness of the God they served and put their attention only on the circumstances?
Jesus knows what you have been facing
Jesus knew of the insufficiency of the disciples’ resources, as well as your smallness in the face of the problems you have been facing in the midst of this pandemic, be it a situation of unemployment, anguish, panic and even depression. But the big question is: what are your eyes fixed on? Are they fixed on the size of your difficulty or the size of your God?
After this dialogue with the disciples, Jesus multiplied 5 loaves and 2 fish and managed to feed more than 5000 people who were gathered there. There was a miracle and the faith of the disciples and everyone present was strengthened.
God is greater than your difficulty
We can make an application of this story in our present moment in life. We are in the middle of a pandemic, it is time to learn not to lose our faith in the face of adversity, and even in the lack of necessary resources, but on the contrary to make our faith grow.
At what point did you forget that God is much greater than your difficulty? Instead of surrendering to fear, despair and anxiety, surrender, along with what haunts you, at the feet of the Lord.
In this way, we need to learn from this biblical passage that it is the Lord who sends us sustenance – in every way – in the right amount, so it is up to us to wait on Him. Let Him be God, have faith and trust.
