Bring The Bread

Mark 6:33-44 Feeding the Five Thousand

But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.

Yesterday we had such a powerful and profound message shared at our church by Rev. Sergio Martinez from SED AG. He shared out of the story “Feeding the Five Thousand”, which is the only notable miracle that is shared across all four gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.]  As he spoke I wrote down in my own notes, “Bring the Bread.” He was explaining how often we come to God in shock of how we should handle situations. In this case, they really needed a miracle. There was approximately ten thousand people there to feed as the bible only mentions five thousand men not inclusive of the women and many children. The multitudes saw the Miracle Maker and they wanted their miracle! The only thing is now Jesus asked for His disciples to demonstrate the miracle for Him! He wanted their cooperation not their doubt! Jesus does the impossible.  As the bible reminds us in Luke 1:37, “With God All Things Are Possible.” Yet, the disciples questioned why He was asking them to sort out these hungry families and feed them WITH ONLY five loaves of barley bread and two fish. Naturally any one of us in that situation will look at the bread…then look at the crowd! Two plus two equals???? FOUR! Let’s do the math in our minds.

There was no way in the natural that all those people could have been fed.  IT WOULD HAVE TO BE A MIRACLE!!! Obviously! But what really touched my heart about the message, was how often we come to the One that repeatedly does miracles in our midst and ask if He can do it again. For there could be any issue, any problem, or any lack…With God there is nothing impossible. He makes all things possible. The speaker shared that there was no Stop and Shop Supermarket or Walmart nearby [we laughed]. They just had what was in their hands. Even looking at the type of bread, it wasn’t even the best! It was like a cheap type of bread at that time. We are people that constantly look at the current product that is in our hands. We think that it is not good enough. We think that we can’t. We think that we don’t have enough resources. We think that what we have is cheap. We don’t see any value in what we have.

That is when I felt a huge tug in my stomach. I thought to myself “WOW!” I keep looking at my “barley bread” too! I keep comparing in my mind. I keep looking at what the situation is. I keep confessing the same thing over my life. Not realizing that God wants to take my “barley bread” and multiply it into something miraculous! I must value what I have, who I am with, what surrounds me, the place that I am in life and how much God has blessed me with. There are moments that I can become ungrateful, unthankful or even resentful. I can become bothered, frustrated and disturbed by things. So I sat there and just cried before the Lord. I can’t despise what God has given me. I must VALUE what He has given me.

God I know you gave me so much in this life and I know that You will glorify Yourself through this! I won’t look upon my situation as impossible for I know that You are the God that makes ALL THINGS POSSIBLE! Even if I don’t have my miracle yet, it shall come to pass because You said it will!

How often do we forget who we are with?  We forget that Jesus is in our midst. He wants to utilize the simple things that look like they have no value to glorify Himself greatly with it. All He wants is for us to cooperate with Him and give what we have. Even with mustard seed faith [Luke 17:6] we BRING THE BREAD! We bring what we have to the table despite what we think of it – God sees that it is the perfect product for a miracle!

What we look at as broken, shattered, torn, faulty, beyond repair or bad in the batch… this is the perfect thing for God. For now He can place His perfection on our imperfection! Just bring the bread. Bring what you have to the table so that all can eat and reap the benefits. We will be able to feed many with our testimonies! We will be able to provide much when we allow God to use what was broken or imperfect in our lives to demonstrate how great the Love of God is.

So whatever YOUR situation is today. Maybe it is your job, your finances, your marriage, your kids, your home, your health or any other prayer request. Don’t even compare your bread with others. If they fed at the table first, your turn is coming! Just know that you are in the midst of a Miracle Maker. He has the perfect timing for you too. Bring the bread and He will do the rest by using what you brought to Him. It will be a beautiful thing.

The best bread ever will make the best meal…so don’t leave it behind. Don’t cast it away as useless. There is such a great value in things that we have, especially when we bring it to the One that does the miraculous.