February 25, 2018

"He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well: he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and they were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present. "Mark 8:6-9

 This passage made me think of three things:

God is an amazing provider. He was able to feed four thousand men with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish. He is the answer to the "not enough mentality", and to the scarcity mindset. For a long time, I thought that the answer was money, having more, saving more. Jesus is the answer to everything. When he said on the cross: "It is finished" I believed that included financial fears, bill payments, our basic and advanced needs. Jesus addressed all that, and it's finished indeed. The choice is ours. We can choose to chase the illusion of money and become depleted eventually, or we can turn to Jesus and allow him to feed us abundantly and "do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" Ephesians 3:20. It doesn't mean that we quit everything and fall into inaction, but it's rather an invitation to realize that the true and only provider is Jesus. He is the only bridge between scarcity and abundance. Everything else is just a temporary, sometimes very expensive fix.

Jesus showed great compassion for the people. "I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way". Mark 8 1-3 "Selfishness is an epidemic within our society. No one thinks about others anymore. Our lives are too complex and move too fast to care about other- when was the last time you really thought about the well-being of someone else." Jesus is the abundant provider and as his followers, we are invited to be the same way. There are a multitude of simple ways, we can be there for somebody else. Something that I came across recently, is learning to listen. Learning to listen means learning to really focus on what the other person is saying, not interrupting or talking over them, or trying to come up with an answer while they are talking. 

Gratitude. Jesus thanked the Father for the bread and for the small fish. Being thankful for the small things that we have, could be the gate, the entry point to the world of miracles and abundance that God has in store for us. ^"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name." Psalm 100:4