Faith That He'll Provide

“JESUS THEREFORE LIFTING UP HIS EYES, AND SEEING THAT A GREAT MULTITUDE WAS COMING TO HIM, SAID TO PHILIP, ‘WHERE ARE WE TO BUY BREAD, THAT THESE MAY EAT?’ 6 AND THIS HE WAS SAYING TO TEST HIM, FOR HE HIMSELF KNEW WHAT HE WAS INTENDING TO DO.”

Here you see these two verses, which I will focus on. But you should read chapter 6:1-14. You’ve probably heard the story before; maybe many times.

It is about Jesus accomplishing a miracle in order to feed well over five thousand people who had come out to the wilderness to hear him preach. This is not a fairy tale. The God who in the beginning spoke all things into existence, has now come to the earth as a man, but He is still fully God, and able to do anything. Nothing is impossible with God.

But here’s my point in giving you verses 5 and 6.

Notice that although He already knows what He is going to do, He asks Philip where they’re going to get food to feed all these people. Now, remember, this is first century Palestine, and far from the nearest town. There’s not exactly a fast food joint nearby. Philip’s jaw must have dropped at the very question.

But we must learn what Philip learned that day. Sometimes we just can’t depend on our own resources or our own strength. Jesus wants us to learn to depend on Him for our needs and to help us help others.

It would have been so easy if there had been a Safeway store just over the hill; but then, they wouldn’t have seen this wonderful display of God’s love and provision, and they wouldn’t have learned about the power of the Creator to meet their needs.

We need to get in the practice, before we run out and try to get for ourselves the things we think we need, of asking Jesus in prayer, “Lord, is there some way you want to provide this need for me? Is there something you want me to learn about You instead of going out and running up a credit card, or maybe buying something I don’t really need anyway?

“Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name, ‘call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know’.”

Jeremiah 33:2,3

(Read: Jeremiah 32:17 Luke 1:37 Ephesians 3:20,21 Philippians 4:19)