Application: I'm excited that God seems so imminent in my life these days. Dreams coming true, strangely insightful "words of knowledge", promises for the future... I find myself looking eagerly for the next divine bread crumb to lead me down the trail towards a rich life of obedience and fulfillment. When will God provide all my financial needs? When will he speak to me next? When will he change lives through me? I think I should rather be spending my energy on living with integrity during the "crumb-less" interim, seeking God's Kingdom first and trusting that He is (in his sneaky way) providing all those other things at the same time.
It's kind of like feeding the 5,000. I f I were a disciple I wouldn't be passing out bread. I would be staring into the baskets! I'd be like, "Hey Peter! Check it out! Wait for it..... waaaaait... bread mitosis!!" I have a job to do. I want to let God focus on his God stuff and I'll just focus on my own discipleship and integrity while I pass out the bread.
Great insights and perspective! If you're like me (and Israel in the wilderness) you may be practicing on this many times before (if ever) getting it right -- ugh! Oh, well. Jesus got what He paid for, with us, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health. I may not be the most beautiful bride, but it doesn't matter, 'cause you know what they say, "Love is blind." Even so, I'm really glad He doesn't believe in divorce!
ReplyDeleteI love that the feeding of the 4,000 comes right after this and the disciples still were asking, "bread? what? i don't get it." Jesus has to continually remind these guys where his authority comes from and what their response to his ministry should be. I know that I sometimes have difficulty recognizing the authority of God and living in response to that. Obedience is rough. ;-)
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