Too Little is Enough

"There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?" (John 6:9)

I was ready to start on this post several days ago with some very specific ideas I wanted to capture, but I have waited so long to come back to it that many of them have gone back into hiding. But I do know that the core thought that grabbed my attention was the principle of the 'little' that operates in heaven's kingdom that seems to contradict the way we normally view things.

But then, that's what I keep seeing more and more clearly. The kingdom of heaven according to our perspective is almost always upside down to what makes 'sense' to us. Last weekend I visited a Sabbath School class where they are studying the book “The Upside Down Kingdom” which really alerted me again to this reality. Nearly everything that Jesus did and taught seems to invade or violate principles that we are so used to ordering our lives after.

This principle of too little not being a problem at all seems absurd to us, myself included. Yet how many times did Jesus challenge human assumptions by fishing for faith in circumstances that defied normal logic? At the same time, what I see in this story is that Jesus needs full access to that 'little' resource before He can take it, bless it and multiply it for our good. The focus on what they did not have in the answer of Philip before this offer by Andrew was not something that Jesus could work with. He was not about to multiply their absence of money. But as soon as Andrew made the comment recorded in this verse Jesus was ready to swing into action building on the 'little bit' that was offered.

Many of the stories of God's intervention throughout the Bible revolve around this idea of God's provision through something impossibly small. The oil and flour that kept reappearing for the widow in Elijah's story and a similar experience for yet another widow in a similar experience came from faith combined with willingness to offer a little bit to God. Likewise, some time later Jesus and His disciples faced an almost identical situation to what is referred to here and they still did not really engage their faith in God's desire to bless through the little.

I am beginning to wonder if there is something of a formula here. Maybe in some circumstances it is not enough to just have faith. Jesus seems to be conveying through these stories an idea that He may need an anchor point in our lives, something over which we have control or influence which while totally inadequate is still something we can hand over to God. When we make such decisions and choose to move in His direction instead of waiting until a solution is clearer in our thinking, God seems to specialize in taking our meager resources and throwing them at impossible odds and surprising us with joy that brings honor to His reputation.

Sometimes I wonder if the 'little' that I have to offer at times may seem totally irrelevant initially. What if the little that I have seems to be nothing but pain, sorrow or brokenness? Too often I think, like as reflected in Andrew's comment above, that the little I have to offer may not be of any use to Jesus. But if I have ownership over it or have influence to access it, when mixed with even a particle of faith can suddenly explode into an epiphany of glory and praise to my caring, loving Father.

I am currently in the middle of reading the book “The Shack” which I understand has raised some intense emotions and controversy recently among the religious. The farther I get into this book the more obvious I see why this is so. Yet what I have read so far has only reinforced and deepened my appreciation for the many surprising and unusual truths about God that He has been revealing to me for a number of years now. I am surprised that someone has so many of these uncommon concepts of God collected all in the same place and has presented them so compellingly. I realize that I may not agree technically on every doctrinal belief with this author, but the significant points that he is attempting to convey about God's feelings and desires towards us are in full sync with what God has been showing me personally over the past few years.

One thing is becoming clear to me the longer I keep drawing closer to God: religion as normally advanced will almost certainly cause me to view God through very distorted vision and will always lead me to an external mode of trying to get right with God rather than enter into a saving relationship with Him. The real problem of sin is not that we do bad things or make God upset with us or break rules laid out for us somewhere, although all that is certainly involved. But the real core of sin that keeps us doing all those things compulsively is that in the deepest places of our heart and soul we resist believing that God is really good, that He cares completely for us and that He can be fully trusted in any and all circumstances.

This is the recurring theme through every story of Jesus' life while here on earth.

This is the recurring theme through every story in my life and in your life.

Am I going to trust God? I cannot initially, for it is impossible to trust someone until you have had time and some interaction with them to come to know if they are worthy of trust. And that time must also be filled with experiences in relationship with that person before you can know in your heart that they can be relied on consistently.

Jesus came to reveal the trustworthiness of God. But He did not insist that we immediately convert over to trusting Him instantly. He spends time with us, is patient with our horribly twisted ideas about what God is like but keeps challenging us to readjust how we feel about Him until we have enough roots grown deep within us so that He can take the highest place of priority in our hearts.

Father, I so desperately want to believe in Your heart much more than I do. I sometimes glimpse little snippets of Your glory but then the darkness seems to engulf me again for a season. But I am learning to shift my focal point, to turn away from the normal assumptions and paradigms and pull together the fragments of Your blessings and tokens for good in my life. I am learning that when I choose to do this the light begins to again brighten a little more and I can sense that You never did leave me at any time.

Father – Jesus, keep working with me. Of course I know that You are, but I say that to give you even more access to my heart. The thirst that is growing inside of me for Your presence at times ebbs and flows, but I want to live more openly and consistently in the shadow of Your presence and love. I am so unlike You in so many areas of my character, but all I can do is take the little that I find inside of me and the little that I have control of around me and offer it to You to do whatever it is You do with such things.

What are these for so many people? I don't have to know the answer to that question, I just need to know Your heart better and offer what I have to You, living in anticipation of Your surprises in my life, in my family and in my circle of influence. Thank-you so much.

God's Excuses

Does God need an excuse to intervene in our circumstances at times?

Is He looking for people who will give Him an entry excuse to work miracles for His children?

If so, how can I learn to give God an excuse to do something unusual and transforming in my life?

Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. (John 6:11)

As I look at this story in Jesus' life I see something that can be found elsewhere in His stories and in the teachings of the Bible. It is the element of thanksgiving. I have noticed it before and have been convicted that it is one of the most vital ingredients in the relationship we have with God if we want to be really serious about knowing God. To enter into the presence of God and come to know Him in a saving way requires first of all passing through the gates of thanksgiving and praise as revealed to us in the Old Testament model of the sanctuary.

I have watched in this story as Jesus first of all makes sure His disciples begin to grasp the enormity of their situation. He wants them to realize that there is a serious problem and they are involved in it so that when He provides a solution that there will be no doubt that God is the one to be glorified. But Jesus is also fishing for a response of faith from someone in this story and He gets that response from the suggestion made by Andrew.

Faith, no matter how small, is the notion that God can provide for our needs even though all the evidence around us insists that there is no reason to believe such a notion. In this story I see no hint that the disciples had any reason to believe that Jesus might do what He ended up doing based on their own personal knowledge and experience during the time they had already spent with Him.

All throughout the gospel narratives I see Jesus fishing for faith everywhere He can look for it. Sadly, the places that He usually finds the most faith is in the hearts of people outside the chosen group that professed to know God the best. It was almost always someone who was not a Jew who was more likely to be commended by Jesus as having great faith and who were ones most likely that would act in bold confidence that Jesus could do anything for them that they needed.

But Jesus also rewarded little glimmers of faith. And this is in harmony with what is described by the prophets of old. Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. (Isaiah 42:1-3) In Jesus' quick response to Andrew's timid offer I see this principle being displayed. Jesus was hoping for just such an offer from someone, a suggestion based on the real question that Jesus had posed instead of the typical focus on the problems, amplifying them instead of enhancing the glory of God.

In essence, Jesus was looking for an excuse, a response that had at least a little of the element of faith so that He could establish a beachhead, a foundation upon which He could enter into the circumstances and build a whole new way of viewing reality for all involved. As soon as Andrew made His little suggestion Jesus immediately swung into action and instructed His disciples to prepare the people and position themselves in an posture of expectation for something good to happen. Apparently it seems that Jesus could not do the same thing with the comment that Philip had made for it was too immersed in the world's way of seeing things and was focused primarily on the counterfeit system of thinking that permeates most of our lives.

But there is another significant point in this story where Jesus provides yet another excuse for God to intervene on their behalf.

Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. (John 6:11)

I see in this verse far more than simply a foundation for our tradition of 'saying grace' before a meal. In fact, I have long been troubled at the way most people pray before a meal simply because it has become so disconnected from reality and almost totally is performed as a mindless routine, a ritual, as something to keep God happy or not upset with us. I will agree that there may be many who derive benefit from praying before a meal and I certainly am not suggesting that people stop this practice necessarily. But in my own life I actually decided many years ago to quit performing this as a routine for the sake of becoming more real. I felt that for me it was far more important to make this outward practice subordinate to a genuine heart experience and if I chose to pray before I eat that it needed to be a result of genuine gratitude coming from the heart rather than a way to prevent others from thinking less of me because I did not conform to their expectations of what people think a Christian is supposed to do.

What I am seeing in this story is a demonstration of what the real deal should look like. I don't think for a moment that Jesus was just 'saying grace' to fulfill some sort of religious obligation in His culture or even to create a new one. Jesus was always fully engaged in His intimate relationship with His Father in heaven and when He prayed He was simply talking with His Father like He might talk with anyone else in His life. So when Jesus offered up thanks and gratitude He was doing it fully from the heart and not in the least as an outward performance of compliance to some set of traditions.

But much more importantly, this demonstration of engaging in public gratitude for blessings of God is an illustration of the kind of power that can be unleashed into our desperate situations when we learn to likewise connect with God through acts of praise and gratitude. I have been sensing for years that one of the greatest hindrances that prevents us from experiencing far more of the miracles of God in our lives is our lack of true gratitude and praise. And the reason that we don't praise more is because we have long been mistaken about the causes upon which we usually think our praise should be based.

I think it is clear in the life of Jesus that gratitude is a powerful key in the hand of faith that can open immense resources into our lives that can dramatically transform us. But where we often get sidetracked is that we usually keep waiting to see something about which we think we should be grateful instead of engaging in gratitude before the evidence is so clear. We often assume that until we can clearly see blessings of God in our lives that we must keep begging God for help instead of thanking Him from the heart. This seems confusing even to talk about it partly because we are so entrenched in our old way of thinking that it seems almost weird to conceive that we can genuinely praise and thank God in the face of compelling contrary evidence.

One thing that has been very effective helping to liberate me in this area of confusion is something taught to me by a good friend years ago who also taught me how to study the Bible in an exciting new way. He brought to my attention that instead of basing my gratitude and thanksgiving on tangible blessings that I can already perceive, that real praise and life-changing gratitude should be based on who God is far more than what He seems to be doing in my life at the moment.

If I focus the motivation for my gratitude on who God is in character and dwell on each aspect of His character through my deliberate acts of devotion and praise, then I will never be in danger of having that foundation questioned or undermined, because God's character never changes in the slightest. Circumstances and outward 'evidence' may change all the time and cause many to question the goodness of God, but when I choose to believe in His goodness and compassion and kindness and care for me irregardless of what my surrounding circumstances may suggest, then I am poised to offer up genuine praise and gratitude at any time without danger of having it diluted by doubts based on threatening situations around me.

In Jesus' life on this earth, He made sure to keep so close to His Father at all times that He never doubted His Fathers goodness or concern for His children and so never became infected with any taint of unbelief. If we would follow His example of intimate fellowship with Father and train ourselves to focus on His character more than on His obvious blessings, we too could begin to experience God's intervention more often in our own lives as we would begin to access His mighty provisions for us through gratitude that would bring honor to His name.

This is not just theory but is something very relevant in my life right now. I am facing what might appear to be desperate circumstances right now from a human standpoint. But as I seek to view my situations through heaven's perspective instead of the way I have typically related to things, I find that the evidence of God's care for me can begin to show up in my life more and more often. I begin to recognize providential interventions in my life as I choose to trust His heart no matter what my circumstances seem to imply and I experience far more peace than I have in much of my past.

I believe that real faith is this learning to trust God in the face of circumstances that try to convince us that He cannot be fully trusted. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Someone recently pointed out that this definition would be viewed as absolutely absurd and discredited in a typical court of law. To be assured of something that is currently only a hope and to feel confident about something that has no tangible proof or evidence is absolutely contrary to the world's method of exercising justice and finding truth. Yet the Bible clearly states that this is the essence of faith and without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Jesus' demonstration of the role of gratitude in relationship to faith in this story is vitally important I believe. I see that not only am I to choose to believe that God can take care of all my needs and is with me at all times, but that belief is deepened and takes root when I choose to praise and thank God for who He is and what He is like when I don't yet have apparent evidence that strongly supports those beliefs.

As Jesus gave thanks to His Father in heaven and accepted the little that His friends had to offer to Him, He was in turn offering that little gift to His Father who in turn honored His faith by multiplying the food into a demonstration designed to bring honor to Father. In my own life I am seeing similar things happen at times. As I choose to make my mind stay away from dwelling on my impossibilities and instead focus on God's real character of love and concern for me, I am seeing unexpected blessings show up repeatedly in ways that make it clear they are coming from the One who is eager to bring honor to Father in my life as well.

Where the Resources

We find ourselves facing increasing difficulties that threaten to intimidate and discourage us. If we allow them to, they can give us excuses to doubt God and His provision for our lives. But the question ever remains – how will we choose to respond to Satan's insinuations?

My wife now not only has had Fibromyalgia for over a year which required her cutting back to part-time work, but for the past several weeks has been totally debilitated by the presence of extreme back pain which completely eliminates her ability to work altogether. She cannot even stand very long or walk without excruciating pain and needs full-time attention. An MRI revealed that she has three bulging discs and one of them has ruptured causing extreme pain all the way down one leg.

This loss of her job has obviously created even more pressure on our financial situation. My construction work has been sporadic at best over the last year and if it were not for the new business that God brought to us which is still just getting started, we would have no apparent source of income whatsoever. In addition, our expenses seem to be increasing with all the hot weather, the medical bills etc. and this has added to the enormous amount of debt we were already struggling under from years past.

Again, the question presses itself in the face of all of these events in our lives – how will we respond to these multiplied suggestions of Satan that God is not what we are coming to believe that He is.

The reason I keep coming back to this question is because I have a quotation posted on my wall that keeps reminding me that things are not as they usually appear in this world of deception and fear. Here is the original quote.

When trial comes to prove us,

when we cannot see an increase

of prosperity and comfort before us,

but a probable lessening of these things,

when there is a pressure

necessitating sacrifice on the part of all,

how shall we receive Satan’s insinuations

that we are going to have a hard time,

that everything is going to pieces,

that there is sore trouble ahead of us? . . .

We ought to gather up

the fragments of heaven’s blessings

and tokens for good,

saying, Lord, I believe in Thee,

in Thy servants, and in Thy work.

I will trust in Thee.

{CTr 107}

So how am I going to respond to Satan's insinuations in all the things that are taking place in my life right now? One thing is to pay attention to where God has me meditating right now in His Word. I find myself currently immersed in the story in John 6 where Jesus challenged Philip to consider the situation they found themselves facing, not completely dissimilar to what we are facing.

The beginning of the chapter sets up the scene with thousands of people flocking into a wilderness retreat because of their enthusiastic desire to experience more from this sensational new teacher they recently discovered. Jesus had tried to retire in order to spend some quiet time with His disciples alone, but the crowds quickly dispelled much hope of that taking place. But instead of resenting the intrusion, Jesus ministers to them as revealed in the other gospels, by sharing incredible principles of the kingdom never before seen so clearly since the beginning of the history.

But a problem develops during this time. All of these people are far from any normal source of nourishment and most of them had not planned ahead and brought food for themselves. Likely they had not thought that they would be gone from home for so long and had no idea that they would be riveted all day with listening to such a compelling teacher. But as the large gathering lingered hour after hour the physical processes that produce hunger still took place and after awhile the discomfort began to overcome the intrigue and Jesus and His disciples were facing a real crisis.

It is too easy for us, knowing the end of the story as we do, to miss the situation as the disciples viewed it from their perspective. It is hard to put completely out of our mind the reality that Jesus planned to feed this crowd through a miraculous display of care for them. None of this crossed the mind of any of the disciples and all that they could bring into their consciousness was the current evidence threatening to create a disaster and a great deal of discontent by thousands of people becoming very agitated and unpredictable as their hunger drove them to ever more desperate measures.

Even though no one had invited any of these people into this remote region to start with, the disciples now began to feel nervous, like somehow the blame might end up on them or even more so on Jesus for bringing about such a catastrophic problem. People when hungry can become very unpredictable and even violent and they do not make very good listeners at that point. Given that the disciples were far outnumbered and that they too did not have anything to eat themselves, the problem they were facing was very real and seemingly quite impossible to solve. If hopeless was a word that was coming up in their thinking it was beginning to press itself to the front of their minds at this point.

But I have noticed that this is a pattern that Jesus seemed to produce repeatedly in the lives of His disciples. Over and over they found themselves facing difficult or impossible situations where they were required to challenge their assumptions about reality. Over and over Jesus would allow circumstances to develop that would expose their fears, their inabilities, their inadequacies and the level of faith they were willing to exercise. Typically their response exposed very little faith but more often a lot of doubt and fear. But the same is still true today among many of us who claim to be His disciples.

At this point in the story it seems that Jesus asks a question that only seems to aggravate the situation. Instead of offering a glimmer of hope that He might be thinking of a solution to the enormous problem they were facing, He asks Philip a question that seems to reinforce the impossibility of the problem. “Where are we going to buy bread to feed all of these people?”

As I have noticed before in this question, there is a subtle clue in there that was missed originally by Philip in his response to Jesus' question. Like we so often do, Philip immediately dropped into the normal mode of thinking about the financial perspective of the problems they were facing. This focus on finances is so typical for most of us that we miss the fact that Jesus did not really ask Philip about finances in the first place. But there is good reason for this mistake that is important for me to pay attention to just as much as it was for His disciples back then.

The world's system of belief about reality is based solidly on three principles involving the spirit of Mammon, the false god of worldly value that governs currency and finances. The history of economy and finances is a most fascinating one when we see it through the eyes of heaven but is seldom studied from that perspective. Economy is actually one of the three foundation legs of the false system of governance and relationship that this whole world is based upon. Kingship, economy and law have been exposed as the three foundations of the counterfeit system of this world set up by the fallen angel who originated the first resistance against heaven's system of government. That is a whole different but very fascinating set of issues that I learned about several years ago. But economy is a very important part of this counterfeit way of perceiving reality and it distorts nearly everything we think about.

So it is no surprise that Philip responded as he did and very likely most of us would have done similarly. How many times do I immediately begin to worry about how I am going to keep going when circumstances disturb my financial security? Notice that this might be seen all through the way I listed our current problems at the beginning of this piece. I am constantly pressured to view life from a financial perspective and nearly everything around us is designed to keep our focus along this vein.

But what does the Bible author mention in this most interesting narrative? He says here that Jesus asked this question to test Philip, for He already knew what He intended to do.

That is a most profound statement that must be applied to my own perspective every time I find myself facing seemingly impossible circumstances. I have an incredible advantage over the disciples of knowing the end of the story as written here in the Bible, yet how much does that motivate me to respond differently than how Philip responded? Doesn't the first reaction to similar circumstances involve a penchant to focus on the financial stress that such problems can produce? Philip's response seems to be nothing out of the ordinary and we should be very careful in our criticism since we likely would have said something very similar. In fact, we do say things quite similar frequently as we face our own challenges not unlike what the disciples faced on that mountainside.

But let me add a little more to what I have already started to list above. Not only has our sources for financial support been dwindling but the need for physical assistance has dramatically increased as well. My wife now requires time-consuming amounts of attention to care for her needs all day and sometimes at night as she is unable to do many of even the small things most people take for granted. We have been blessed to have my sister and her husband staying with us for a couple weeks while I have been traveling out of state during that time, but now they need to return home and I am faced with even greater difficulties as a result. How am I to care for her and try to build up a growing business all at the same time? My resources definitely are far outstripped by my difficulties.

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 NRSV)

This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. (John 6:6)

Now here is something compelling from this story. Notice that Jesus never did resolve the problem of finances that His disciples thought they were facing. Jesus did not address that problem using the approach that seemed most obvious to everyone else. Philip, like most of us do, had zeroed in on a solution based on the normal way we always think problems have to be resolved – by throwing more money at them. That is the world's fundamental way of approaching problems, by figuring out how much money it is going to take to fix them. Money becomes the focal medium through which everything is evaluated and as such it becomes the filter that colors everything and keeps us under the deceiving influence of a counterfeit spirit. As a result we also remain largely blinded and deceived and unable to perceive reality the way it really functions from God's perspective.

So why did Jesus pose this question to Philip in the first place? And why does He allow circumstances to bring up similar questions for me time after time in my own life? I am beginning to see that very possibly, just like Philip, maybe I am not paying close enough attention to the nature of the question as God poses it and instead am slipping into my own assumptions about what is going on. Philip thought Jesus was asking about money, but Jesus' question was not focused on money but on where to look for a solution.

What would have been the right answer to Jesus' question? That has intrigued me for some time and for good reason, for if I can begin to see what Jesus was really after here I suspect that it can have powerful implications for similar situations that I currently face in my own life. If Jesus didn't get the best response from Philip that He had hoped for, can He get a better response from me, one who now has the rest of the story that gives me much more perspective than Philip had?

I also believe that one reason Jesus posed the question that He did was to draw in His disciples to be more keenly aware of their need. But this was not to produce doubt or discouragement but to engage them fully at both the mental and emotional level so that when He provided a solution it could be appreciated to the maximum degree. If we don't know the extent of our impossibilities neither can we truly appreciate the degree to which we should praise and honor God when He provides a miraculous provision.

In contrast, I am intrigued at how Jesus related to the suggestion from Andrew even though on the surface it seemed to have little to offer to the situation. What I see in Andrew's words is a shift of focus, a turning away from the typical economy-based solution to a hope-oriented suggestion based on what is already at hand. Even though the resources Andrew mentions were impossibly inadequate for the problem, Andrew chose to focus on what they did have instead of what they did not have. It also was not dependent on money but on real kinds of provisions closer to what God provides to directly address our needs.

What Andrew did was to act as the connecting link between the meager and inadequate resources of man and the One who has no physical or financial limitations. The only limitation on God is the lack of our willingness to trust His heart and bring to Him what we do have and place it under His authority. Jesus plans involved acting outside of their normal expectations and He didn't require them to know ahead of time how He was going to solve the problem. Believing in Jesus does not mean we have to believe in how He might solve our problems but believing in the heart of the One who has promised to provide for all of our needs. It is a matter of learning to trust His heart more than just trusting His hands. As one preacher put it so well, God asks us to seek His face, not seek His hands.

What I see in this story and what I want to learn in my own situation is that the true answer to the question Jesus posed to Philip was sitting right in front of him. Jesus asked where they would find enough to feed all these people. That 'where' was Jesus Himself. Jesus soon demonstrated that He Himself was the only vital resource that they needed to solve their impossible situations. And nothing has changed today. Jesus is still the 'where' that I need to seek to resolve any and every problem that I will ever face.

When I focus on seeking or worrying about finding a financial solution to my problems, I am turning away from the only reliable source of provision that has been promised to me. Jesus came to reveal that God is my provider and takes full responsibility for caring for His children. But when His children refuse to trust His heart by focusing on the anti-christ spirit of Mammon and focus on financial solutions instead of relying totally on God, it can actually block Him from revealing the unlimited and abundant provisions He has waiting for us. It was only after Andrew expressed his little glimmer of faith that Jesus was able to seize the moment and reveal the heart of the Father in a provision so extravagant that it took everyone by surprise.

I am learning something more about faith and belief here. Jesus did not expect His disciples to have faith that He could multiply the bread and fishes at this point in their experience. That is a left-brain kind of faith that often frustrates us greatly. We often try to figure out ourselves how God should solve our problems and then attempt to work up intense intellectual or emotional 'belief' that God is going to do what we demand of Him. When things don't work out the way we planned or asked for, we become impatient with God and our distrust of His heart begins to surface into the open.

But this may be exactly why God allows us to suffer many times in order to expose the deeper hidden unbelief that is preventing Him from doing what He longs to do in our lives. He wants us to see the deception in our own heart and the distrust that lies hidden deep inside under the veneer of religion, the unbelief that prevents Him from accessing the deeper levels of our heart where He wants to reside. Until we allow these deeper levels of mistrust to surface and confess them honestly to Him, we will be trapped in lies about God that prevent Him from exercising all that He wants to do for us as our Lord and our God.

What Jesus wanted from His disciples was a glimmer of belief in the trustworthiness of God, that Jesus was able and eager to provide for them no matter how impossible circumstances might suggest. The real issue in all of our lives is how worthy we believe God to be of our trust, not how much 'faith' we can generate to leverage Him to do what we want. And it is real faith of this nature, faith that focuses on the heart of God instead of our notions of how He should fix our problems – this kind of faith will allow God the latitude to address our situations in any way He chooses instead of our predetermined ideas of what He should do.

So I choose to resist Satan's insinuations that things are falling apart and God is not going to take care of us. I choose to focus on the goodness of God, on the faithfulness of His heart, on the limitless nature of His resources and on the unrestrainable compassion that emanates from His heart. I believe that as I choose to gather up the fragments of heaven's blessings and tokens for good, just as Jesus instructed His followers to gather up the fragments left over from what the multitude had feasted on till they could eat no more, that my own faith will be strengthened and my own life will result in a testimony that will bring honor to God's reputation and bless all who see more clearly what He is really like.