Dear Reader… Do you feel that Christ would allow us to go through the impossible? Why would Christ allow us to walk down a pathway of adversity, unless He knew that He could use these moments, for His honor and glory? In Luke 9:13-14, we read…”He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish…unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (14) (About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of above fifty each.” This is not only a great story of Jesus’ miraculous power but these verses also reveal something else. This story shows how the disciples became deeply focused on what they were seeing with their own eyes, rather than the faith and trust that they should have been experiencing with Christ. Jesus would have never had the disciples gather the thousands of people, into groups of fifty and prepare to feed them, unless He knew that He had the power to do so. Have we become like the disciples? Are we so deeply focused on what is going wrong and even how the situation could worsen, rather than trusting in Christ and knowing that He would never allow these moments to enter our lives, unless He knew that He could bring us through them? Have we forgotten who Jesus really is or are we comparing Him to a powerless world? When we accepted Jesus into our lives, we also trusted Him with our hearts. In other words, we placed our complete trust in Him and accepted that He would never harm us but rather He would help us and love us. Where has our faith gone? Has our faith been smothered by the thoughts and feelings that stem from a circumstance? We need to remember that Jesus is nothing, like what we experience with people in this world. He is a god that created us, out of His perfect love and He only created us because He knew that He could love us and care for us. We need to ask ourselves this question…why would God create us and place us down here on earth…only for Him to stand back and watch us suffer. Yes, God does allow bad times to enter our lives but it’s only so He can use these moments, in a weak area of our life…in a way where He can use the weaknesses to strength us and allow us to take one step further, towards Him and Heaven. Are we allowing our lack of resources and the moments of affliction, to place a blind fold over our eyes, so that we cannot look for what Christ longs to do? When we look at the things that are only before us, then we will never see what Christ can do ahead of us…right? The disciples were looking at the five loaves and two fishes, as they viewed a crowd of over 5000 people. Instead, they should have anticipated the things that Christ could do, through the five loaves and two fishes. Where is our faith and trust in God today? Are we allowing Christ to become powerless in our lives, by what we see around us or do we see the possibilities that Christ can do, through the trying moments that surround us? We are either going to allow ourselves to wallow in the weak moments, due to our lack of trust and faith in Christ or we are going to anticipate the work that Christ can do, through these moments of adversity. The choice is up to us. We will either make room for God to work, by how we think and react to our problems or we will push Him out, through a heart that lacks faith and trust in Him. Which road are we going to choose today? Blessings on your day… It’s Always & Only Because of Him… Diane K Chamberlain (Author & US Director of JCCM) For more of my writings and book info, go to dianekchamberlain and jesuscarechildrenministryus.org
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:50:04 +0000