A Planting of Faith Seeds for the Glory of the LORD
By trusting in Jesus we can leave it up to God…

Among our greatest needs is our need to trust. I understand trust as faith (belief) in action. To trust is to give sufficient power to belief (faith) in order to take the first step in response the object or person we place our faith in. We learn to trust though our own experiences and as we observe the experiences of others. In fact we begin learning to trust as new born infants and continue on throughout our entire life.

I believe one of the greatest bible stories that teach us to trust is found in chapter 14 of Matthew’s gospel. “Bring them here,” he said. Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!” (Matthew 14:18–21, NLT)

Even though the story is about Jesus feeding people with a small amount of food it goes far beyond just food. It is about Jesus’ love for people as you can see in verse 14, “Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:14, NLT) In addition to illustrating Jesus’ love and compassion the story also illustrates God’s ability to meet our needs at our point of need. When we are at the point of our greatest need (hungry) God through our relationship with Jesus gives us not necessarily what we think we need but what we DO need.

Not only is the story of Jesus feeding the multitude a lesson in trusting God for those things we need it is also a lesson in loving as explained by the apostle Paul. “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” (Ephesians 5:1–2, The Message)

One thing I noticed about the story of Jesus feeding the multitude is the story says nothing about whether or not all of the people were fully committed believers yet later as Jesus told the people he was the Bread of Life. “At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66–69, NLT)

When we Trust Jesus with our lives God will give us His Life!

Believe it! Experience it!
Grace and PEACE!
Gary

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And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 NLT)

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Scriptures marked MSG have been taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.”

“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”