Five Loaves and Faith

"But Jesus said to them, 'They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.' And they said to Him, 'We have here only five loaves and two fish.' He said, 'Bring them here to Me.' Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children." Matthew 14:16-21 NKJV

"Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually!" Psalms 119:116-117 ESV

Have you ever cried out this way?

We can look at our ability or our provision and say, 'It is not enough.' We divide the bread in our minds and look at how many people need to be fed and begin to live in unbelief.

Later in Mark 8 when the disciples forgot to bring enough bread Jesus reminds them of the five loaves in Matthew 14. Who forgets bread? We do. Who often lacks ability? That would be us.

Did the disciples eat? Yes. Were they ashamed? No.

I am not condoning irresponsibility... but addition and subtraction fail us often in this life. We need a life of multiplication.

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:2-8 NKJV

God has given all that we need and He has a way of multiplying things that goes beyond our scope of understanding. Our little mustard seed of faith becomes enough.

If we are going to add to anything... add faith first. Add to the thing that is not a work. It is a mindset and a relationship based on God's ability.

Have you forgotten the bread? So what! Grace and peace be multiplied to you.