Thankful For Not Enough

“When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.”

John 6:5-11 KJV

The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thess. 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Well, it’s really not a problem to obey that command when your provision is adequate and enough. But, the real test of faith comes when you are asked to be thankful for not enough! You’ve worked all week long and get your check on Friday. But, when you look at your bills and then look at your check; you discover you don’t have enough! At the end of the month, you have more month than money, but can you still be thankful for not enough?

Well, it seems that Jesus and the disciples were faced with a similar situation in the text. Jesus and the disciples were attempting to find some time alone, but the when the crowd saw them, they followed them and would not leave them alone. Mark says that when Jesus saw the crowd, he had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd, so he began to teach them many things. However, it was getting late in the evening and the crowd had been with Jesus all day, so the disciples came to him and said: “Send them away so that they might go and get some food, for the day is far spent and the hour is late and we are here in a lonely place” But Jesus told them: “You give them something to eat!” It is at that point that we see the first “not enough” in the story. First of all, they because they have been with Jesus all day, there was not enough time for them to go and buy provisions for themselves. For if they had indeed gone away, by the time they got to the market places, the markets would have been closed! Somebody here knows what it means to not have enough time! But you still need to be thankful for not enough!

Mark says “they said,” but John identifies the spokesman as Philip, who said “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One denarius was a day’s wage; therefore, this would have been about eight months’ wages! Now, the text gives no indication how Philip came up with this particular amount. Perhaps it was the amount of money they had in their treasury, but Philip’s point was: “We don’t have enough money to buy enough bread to adequately feed all these people!” In other words, Philip and the rest of the disciples thought that Jesus was asking them to do that which was impossible! That was the second ‘not enough’ not enough money! Oh! I really don’t have to labor that point: All of us know what it means to have not enough money!

But, while Philip was explaining why it couldn’t be done, Andrew was busy looking for a way it could be done! The Synoptic writers record Jesus as asking them to go and see how many loaves they could find, but only John reveals the source of the provisions. Andrew reports to Jesus: “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?” In other words, “Jesus, we found something; but it’s not enough!” Oh yes! This story is filled with ‘not enough!” There was not enough time for the crowd to go and buy food! There was not enough money for the disciples to buy food to feed the crowd! And the two fish and five barley loaves of bread were not enough food to feed five thousand men, not counting women and children!

Now, when we are faced with ‘not enough’ situations, we must guard our attitudes and dispositions! For, if we are not careful, not enough will cause us to fret and complain! Have you ever met someone who is always complaining about not having enough? What most of these people fail to realize is that part of the reason they don’t have enough is because they are always complaining that they don’t have enough! The Bible says: “A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.” In other words, what we believe and say with conviction on a consistent basis will ultimately find fulfillment in the circumstances of our lives! It’s self-fulfilling prophecy! They never have enough because they believe and consistently speak they will never have enough! If you are one of these people, you need to change your vocabulary and increase your faith! You need to quit speaking about what you don’t have, and start speaking about what you want to have! The Bible says: “Let the weak say: ‘I am strong!” But, the more you grumble and complain; the more you will have to grumble and complain about!