“There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fishes; but what are they among so many?” John 6:9
Dear Ones:
What would be the response of God if the believer came before His throne of grace, and asked Him: “Lord, what are you going to do?” Scripture tells us that He, “…is able to do exceeding abundantly above ALL that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…,” and this for His glory. (Eph. 3:20,21) The Lord told the prophet Habakkuk, “….Behold ye among the nations (unbelieving), and regard, and wonder marvelously, “…for I will work a work in your days, which you will not believe, though it be told you.” (1:5) In both of these declarations of what the Lord will do, we find that it exceeds the capacity of man to grasp the magnitude of it. In the simple scenario of Jesus feeding the multitudes, Philip was brought face to face with the reality of the ways and mind of God, which are certainly not those of man. The place of man is to ask God, seek God, and wait upon Him for His perspective, plan, and work. Ezekiel come to understand this matter so very clearly. When the Lord brought him to the valley filled with dry bones, the Lord asked him: “Son of man, can these bones live?” (37:3) Ezekiel’s response was very wise, realizing his own incapacity to understand ALL that the Lord would do. He answered the Lord by saying: “O Lord God, Thou knowest.” In our approach to God, and in particular with regard to all circumstances and needs of life, the issue is not “our good ideas,” nor our perception of what we “think” God will do. It is rather an issue of deliberately deferring to Him, seeking Him to reveal to us what HE has chosen to do. Again, this is born out in Jesus’ dealings with Philip in the face of feeding five thousand people with little or no human resources. Scripture tells us that “…He Himself knew what He would do.” At that point, and because Philip and the disciples obeyed Him, He took the meager offering of a young boy’s meal of two small fish and five barley loaves of bread, broke the bread, and thanked the Father. The result was that the Lord Jesus did the exceeding abundantly above ALL that Philip or the other disciples could imagine.
When Moses brought the people of Israel to the edge of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh in pursuit, the people had no idea how the Lord was going to work to deliver them. He did abundantly more than they could have asked or thought. When Solomon built the temple, the effects of such a structure and the glory of Solomon’s kingdom, was the result of God’s abundant blessing, beyond what one could ask or think. However, it would be when Jesus was born, that the greatest revelation of God to man would begin to shine on the face of lost humanity. It was in God’s perception and concept of humility, and His corresponding greatness, wisdom, and love, that the revelation would come. That which was in the mind of God would exceed, for time and eternity, all that man could ever imagine, conceive or grasp. If the concepts and perceptions of men, not to mention the errors and limitations of men’s sinful thoughts, cannot even begin to “touch the hem of Jesus’ garment,” in understanding His ways and purposes, then why do believers not begin by addressing God alone in prayer, appealing only for the knowledge of “His kingdom, and His will?”
In one of Jeremiah’s prayers, he says: “O Lord, I KNOW that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.” (Jer. 10:23) Jeremiah is deferring to the wisdom and goodness of God here, and not to man’s imaginations. Jeremiah had learned, as Solomon did, to “…lean not to his own understanding,” but to acknowledge God in all his ways. Their great assurance was: “…and He (God) shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:6)
Dear Father, Give us to abide in Christ for ALL things. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad