Follow Jesus

During Bible Study tonight, the greatest revelation came to me. It was almost as if the "Word" just jumped out of the pages and grabbed my attention. What I saw was in John chapter 6 but can also be found in (Mt 14:13-23; Mk 6:30-46; Lk 9:10-17; Jn 6:1-16). In this chapter it describes, in the well-known scriptures, how the lad donated five barley loaves and two fish to Jesus. Then Jesus blessed it and this meal fed the multitude of five thousand until they were full. Afterwards, they were able to gather up the remains which turned out to be twelve baskets full of food.

What jumped out at me was this, when the multitude followed Jesus it created a problem. The problem was that Jesus wanted to feed them. Jesus went to his disciples to see if they knew of a solution. More specifically, when Jesus spoke to Philip he asked him "From whence will we buy food so that these may eat?" It goes on to inform us that Jesus already knew the answer but he wanted to prove Philip. Apparently Philip knew what they had in treasury because his response was to provide Jesus with the amount of their reserved financial resources. It was evident that they didn't have enough. The second possible solution was to send the multitude away so that they could fend for themselves. The third solution was the five barley loaves and two fish offered by the lad. Jesus took the third and final solution offered and blessed it until it multiplied into more than enough.

It is amazing how the solution that Jesus chose to bless and honor was the least selfish of the solutions. It is easy to buy your way out of a problem. It is easy to send your problems away and hide from them. But how easy is it to make the sacrifice to give all you have to Jesus and demonstrate your faith in him to resolve the problem.

Bring all your problems to Jesus reminds me of the following refrain from the song "Yield not to temptation":

Ask the Savior to help you,
Comfort, strengthen and keep you;
He is willing to aid you,
He will carry you through.

In this situation you can easily see that money is not the solution, food is not the solution, and giving up is definitely not the solution. The solution was Jesus the whole time.