John 6:1-15 THANKFULNESS, A MULTIPLIER
The feeding of the Five Thousand is the only miracle that was recorded in all four Gospels in the New Testament. We can learn so many things from this story, i.e. God's ability to do the impossible, God's provision to meet our needs, God's way of working on our doubts. I can talk about them all for days, but I want to focus on a few key takeaways from this story, mostly about the Power of Thankfulness.
Being one of the most preached on stories from the Bible, I suppose that we are familiar with this story. At this time, the Passover was approaching. Jesus went away to the Sea of Tiberias where a large crowd was following Him because of the miracles He performed. He asked and tested Philip, aka Doubting Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" Philip responded, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little."
Philip's classic response failed his test. Jesus asked him "where" to buy the bread and not "how." Philip looked at the circumstance at face value. He did think it through and even did the calculation. He probably calculated the cost right, but he totally missed the point of the test. Back in John 1:44 when Philip first followed Jesus, he said to Nathanael, "We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote." But even after all the miracles that Jesus performed, Philip still did not get it - that Jesus is the Almighty One who is capable to do every impossible thing according to the Father's will.
Andrew, on the other hand, had a more sense of faith but even still impaired. He told Jesus, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?" Nevertheless, Jesus had the people sit down by the grass and used the scarcity of the solution to perform one of the biggest miracles in His ministry.
“Jesus then took the loaves, and WHEN HE HAD GIVEN THANKS, He distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted.”
THE POWER OF THANKFULNESS
By Jesus' example, we learned that thankfulness is a powerful key that could move mountains of impossible needs and hopeless situations. When we unlock praise with the utterance of our mouth, we will see the abundant grace and generosity of God. Notice that the situation did not necessarily change, there were still 5,000 men, 5 barley loaves, and 2 fishes. But Jesus thanking the Father from whom all blessings flow, He opened up the heavens and satisfied every need to the fullest. Sometimes it is not about what we have. Regardless how scarce or plentiful, the attitude of our hearts is more important. When we praise God even in the moment of need, we are acknowledging that He is the answer and He is more than willing and capable to change our situation. We need to focus on God and not on the need. We need to focus on the Giver and not on the gift itself by having a grateful heart.
“And when they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, ‘Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.’ So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.”
Jesus' desire is not only to satisfy us up to our lacking, but He wants to satisfy us to our fullest abundance. We only need to "GIVE THANKS IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE, FOR THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR YOU IN CHRIST JESUS" (1 Thess. 5:18) How far can your thankfulness go?
PRAYER
Our Father, through whom all blessings flow, we give You our praises. We give You thanks regardless of our situations and we acknowledge that You are always in control. We thank You that You are there to help us in our needs and also to overflow our cups with Your goodness. We cannot thank You enough for the many times that You carried us through our every circumstances. Today, we thank You for the breath that we breathe, for the food that we ate, and for the roof over our shoulders. We also give you praise for the good future that You have prepared before us. You have blessed us so much in so many ways. Help us to not forget that. We love You, O God. In Jesus' Name, we pray. Amen!