2226 How To Who

All your life God has been continually showing you his goodness. He’s been working behind the scenes in the details, divinely aligning every moving part to bring you in alignment with his good plans. He’s always provided, always made a way. Again and again, his faithfulness has surrounded you.

So today, God says, “My girl, why do you worry? Why are you anxious? How is it that you still don’t get it? I’m here and I’m working. Give this to me!”

Maybe we struggle because we can’t see God. We question if we really hear his voice. We doubt if it was his power at work before, or was that just luck. We believe but we still have unbelief. And it’s easy to think it would be so much easier if we could really see. If we could for sure hear his voice. If we knew without a doubt that was God’s power that made that happen before – then surely we wouldn’t have to worry about today.

Do we struggle because we can’t see God? Because we don’t know his voice? Because his power has been uncertain in our lives?

Well let me tell you, the disciples literally LIVED with Jesus – they woke up in the same tent as Jesus, they ate every meal with Jesus, where he went they went, and what he did they saw with their own eyes. They experienced his miracles. They saw the impossible happen. Yet when they encountered the next hardship or struggle, they were exactly like us – they worried, they got anxious and they doubted.

So you know what God does – he shows up and does it again for them. He shows them his power again. He provides again in miraculous ways. He reminds them, “My child, you’ve seen me do this before and you can trust me to do it again.”

What has God shown you before that you need to trust him for again? Hear him as he whispers to your soul, “Again, my child – I’ll do it again.” He will heal you again. He will strengthen you again. He will guide you again. He will make a way for you again. He got you through some hard things in the past, and my friend, he will get you through today’s hard thing too. He will do it again!

Earlier in our study of the miracles of Jesus we read about Jesus feeding the crowd of 5,000 (episode 2216). That was when a crowd of 5000 men, plus women and children, had gathered in a remote place to hear Jesus teach and at the end of the day the disciples pointed out to Jesus that the crowd would be getting hungry and there was no food for them in this remote place, so Jesus should tell them all to go home so they can eat. And Jesus says to his disciples, “You feed them.”

Remember how the miracle goes? The disciples freak out – they don’t have enough food for all these people. This was impossible. But a boy offers his lunch of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish (which remember, were more like crackers and sardines). Jesus takes what little there was, and tells the disciples to start passing it out. Every single person in the crowd ate until they were full. Afterward, Jesus had them pick up the leftovers and they gathered 12 baskets full. Yes, 1 basket of leftovers for each disciple.

MIRACULOUS.

Wouldn’t you walk away knowing YOUR JESUS after that. If you personally saw him working. You saw the bread and the fish multiply. You saw the hungry crowd all eat. Then you personally picked up all those leftovers. If you had been there for that personal encounter with the power of Jesus, you would be forever changed. No worry. No stress. Just stay close to Jesus.

Right?

But guess what happened about 6 months later. THE SAME THING!

Literally the words “another” and “again” are used. Different day. Different crowd. Same need. Same Jesus. Many confuse this account for the same miracle as the feeding of the 5,000 – but it’s separate. This is where we see Jesus do it again. Let’s read the story together.

Mark 8: 1-9:

“About this time ANOTHER large crowd had gathered, and the people ran out of food AGAIN. Jesus called his disciples and told them, ‘I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have