Mark 6:39-44 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.
In every home, in every situation, and at every meal, Christians are to give thanks for what God has given them, no matter how insignificant the resource or ability seems, just as Jesus looked to his Father in heaven as he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Jesus took little this day and made it much through faith in God. He presented this insufficient amount of food to God to feed 5,000 people. He gave thanks for it, allowing God to bless what little was there that day, and He expected a miracle. As people of faith, we are to give thanks for everything we possess. We give thanks even when what we have looks insufficient to meet our daily needs. We give thanks even if our strength or our abilities seem not to be enough for the responsibilities and the needs of the day. Giving thanks to God for everything in our lives is fundamental to a Christian. When Paul gave instructions to the church at Ephesus about walking in the light, he included giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:20) In today's passage the disciples gathered up twelve basketfuls of bread and fish after feeding the 5,000. Can we believe there will be sufficient leftovers in our lives if we present everything to God with a thankful heart? When we give thanks for what we have, we are asking God to receive our offerings and to bless our lives. Do we believe that we will have enough left for us after serving God wholeheartedly? Or are our lives so jaded, so dismal in faith, that we do not even pray about everything anymore?
Jesus gives thanks for what He has, not complaining or asking for that what He does not have. God provides abundantly that day, even to the point there were leftovers. This reminds us of the children of Israel in the wilderness. God provided for them, even with leftovers on the sixth day of the week to meet their Sabbath requirements. He provided water even when their situation seemed hopeless in a desert land. God's servant of faith, Moses, became angry with the people because they were always complaining about what they did not have rather than rejoicing about what they had, which was deliverance from Egypt, the land of sorrow, pain, and death. Moses reminded the people that they must not forget all that God had done for them when He led them out of Egypt. He said, "(Remember) your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna." (Deuteronomy 8:14-16) As Christians, we have been delivered from the land of sin and death. Presently, we possess eternal life with our elder brother, Christ, and our Abba Father; in addition, we have a home forever because our Father sent his Son to pay for our right standing with him and our eternal home. Why should we complain about our everyday needs, for God has won the victory for us, cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Paul suffered all kinds of trials and tribulations, yet he could say: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)
We know in the practicalities and realities of life, not everything here on Earth comes out the way we desire. In our understanding, not all things are expanded from little to much as in the feeding of the 5,000. In this world, we see injustice, pain, and death. According to our rational thinking, John the Baptist should not have been beheaded; the apostles should not have been killed; the church should not have been persecuted; Paul should not have hurt Christ by hounding Christians. Still today, we know good people are sometimes martyred for their faith; we know many Christians have faced the pain of sickness and death before their bodies wore out in old age; we know of the cruelties and the unjustness of this wicked world. But in and through it all, God desires us to bless that which we have in life so that He might use everything we have and all we have experienced for his glory. God's purpose for our lives is to provide an abundance for others, but He also will supply miraculously for us and our heirs. The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children — with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. (Psalms 103:8-18) God's provisions are great when we place our lives into his hands, when we ask him to bless everything, even the most difficult times. Amen! Today, give him your loaves and fishes and see what He will do!
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