The Power of GodSample

Trusting Jesus With The Impossible

The Bible tells us that Philip was from Bethsaida, a town very close to where Jesus was now with His disciples and over 15,000 people (if you think it was 5,000, remember that only the men were counted; Matthew clarifies in his Gospel: “not counting women and children”).

Since Philip knew the area well, Jesus asked him where they could buy bread for all these people. Imagine asking a bakery today for 15,000 loaves of bread! Philip didn't think about that or how they'd carry all that bread. Instead, he was doing the math in his head: a denarius was a day's wage, and even 8 months' wages wouldn’t be enough to buy a little for each person. And they definitely didn't have that kind of money!

Jesus had given Philip a problem that seemed totally impossible to solve. Then Andrew came with a kid who had his lunch: 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. You can imagine Philip looking at Andrew and thinking: “You’ve got to be kidding, right?”

But Jesus didn’t need Philip to solve the problem; He knew exactly what to do. After giving thanks for the food, everyone ate until they were full. Then each of the disciples, who probably were busy handing out food and hadn’t eaten, collected a basketful of leftovers. They wouldn’t go hungry either!

And Jesus didn’t do this just to get the crowd to like Him more. He had compassion for these people, even though He knew that most of them followed Him just for the miracles.

GO DEEP

Think about how when there’s a situation that seems totally impossible to solve, Jesus is not only powerful enough to solve it, but He can do so in a way that's far more amazing than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). There’s nothing too difficult for our Amazing God.

BE BOLD

Maybe you have an impossible struggle right now, or maybe you don't. If you don’t, pray to God that when the time comes, you can remember this story and remember that our Powerful God can solve anything. Pray that you can trust in the Lord when you humanly can’t do anything.

MEMORISE IT

“Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.” John 6:11