Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
I truly believe that when we get to heaven, we’re going to discover that many times we gave up way too soon. Many times we quit because we look at our need and we look at our resources, and the need is so much greater than the resource, that we just quit.
I hope you’ve been encouraged as we’ve taken a fresh look at the story of the boy who gave his small lunch to Jesus, and Jesus turned it into a meal for thousands. Some principles we learn from this story are that we must be willing to give Jesus what we have, even though it isn’t enough. We must proceed as though we expect Jesus to take our inadequacies and make them adequate. And we must give thanks before we see the answer.
One of the things I’ve learned in directing this ministry for the last almost thirty-six years is that God never sends the resources for growth and expansion until I take the step of faith and obey his leading. The money does not come in ahead of time. Now, that doesn’t mean I can be a sloppy steward or a foolish leader, but I know that when God says, “Do this,” he is waiting to see me obey before I see how we’re going to pay for it.
A friend of mine told me how she lacked needed helpers in her growing church ministry, and she was getting discouraged. But God said, “You just keep going; I’ll meet your need.” And now she has helpers and volunteers with some to spare, but she had to move ahead before she had any idea where the help was coming from.
You see, this is how we learn to trust God, and without faith it’s impossible to please him. God allows us to be overwhelmed with our need in order that we can see how adequate he is in the face of our inadequacies. And when we come through these times of testing, our faith has grown. We give him the glory, because we know he had to bail us out and work a miracle, so we don’t take credit for it. And then we encourage others to learn to trust God when they are overwhelmed with a need for which they have no resources.
Every Christian who seeks to follow the Lord has to learn and re-learn this lesson over and over, but this is how we please God. Today, whatever need you are facing that has discouraged you, if you’re ready to quit, if you’ve tried and tried to solve it yourself and failed, you are at the point where God can work a miracle. Thank him for your inadequacies, take the steps of faith he directs you to take, keep looking up to heaven, not at the problem or the inadequate resource, and watch him multiply your “small lunch” so it can feed your thousands.