Jesus and his disciples left for a remote location and the crowds followed. Jesus taught them, and at the end of the day, they were hungry. It was late, they were in a remote location, with a crowd of hungry people. The disciples informed Jesus of the situation and made a helpful suggestion: send the people away so they can go into surrounding villages and buy food to eat. Jesus’ response was, “You feed them.” This surprised the disciples. They had given him a suggestion and he turned it all around.
The disciples made three fundamental mistakes in their actions regarding the problem of a hungry crowd. Their first mistake was they did not respond in faith. Jesus asked them to feed the crowd, and they did not pray about how to do this. Their second mistake was focusing on what they didn’t have instead of what they did have. They didn’t have food or enough money to buy food (even if it were available), but they did have God. Their third mistake was coming up with a solution that did not require God’s power to be successful. Their suggestion of sending the crowd away to purchase food would have solved the immediate problem of the crowd’s hunger, or at least removed their responsibility to feed the hungry or take action, which was not God’s plan. Their plan did not require a miracle.
Could Jesus have met the need without any involvement from the disciples? Of course–he could have spoken manna (or fish and loaves) into existence. But that would not have required an action of faith from the disciples. And lastly, Jesus didn’t ask the disciples to solve world hunger. He asked them to meet the needs of those with what they had. He asked them to respond in faith and give what they had.
God wants us to offer up what we have to Him in faith, knowing that it’s not enough, knowing that we’re completely dependent on Him to make it sufficient. And even more sufficient, to multiply it, so that it accomplishes far more than you thought possible. What God calls us to do frequently seems beyond our ability, beyond our resources, because what he wants isn’t just to meet people’s needs. If we will say, “God, I don’t know what you can possibly do with this. It doesn’t seem like much, especially compared to what others seem to have, but it’s yours. All of it. Tell me what you want me to do with it because I want to see your power and glory revealed as you take and transform it into something amazing.” And God will answer that prayer of faith.
