MAY 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 

MAY 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  

(Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, just saying Your Name stirs my soul

 in a way that no other name does!

 Lord, when I consider that I have just uttered the Name of the Everlasting God

 and that I have uttered it with the “Hope” and “Expectation” that I have 

gained an audience with the Creator, I can not fully comprehend 

why the Lord of lords and King of kings would listen to me? 

And when I consider it further, I am even more amazed, for the very reason

 I feel unworthy is the very reason that God sought me out — 

it is because of the fact that I am a sinner that He cares about my eternal soul

 and because God cares for every individual soul He sent a solution 

to correct the sin problem — the solution to my sin is to give my sin to Jesus

 because Jesus was sent from God as a “Gift” of Love

 to those that are lost in sin so that our sins can be forgiven

 just by calling on the Name of Jesus! 

O the Mystery of God that He cares enough for me

 to provide for my forgiveness — 

Praise His Holy Name and Glory to God!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus had been performing miracle after miracle for the multitudes and as

 the number of miracles grew, so did the multitudes following Jesus. 

The multitudes kept growing and Jesus called His disciples to Himself and said,

 “I have compassion on the multitude… 

and I do not want to send them away hungry…”

 and the disciples who had just witnessed Jesus performing miracle after miracle

 knew the Power of these miracles was God’s ability to provide for the needs

 of the multitudes, even in a wilderness setting. 

However, these disciples that had witnessed the Power of God jumped to

 a wrong conclusion of the statement Jesus had just made because they assumed

 that Jesus was going to do what He had done with the feeding of the

 five thousand where Jesus had commanded the disciples, 

“You give them something to eat.” 

(Matthew 14:16). 

However the disciples made the same mistake we make in our daily lives 

as we see God provide for our daily needs in a way that only God can do

 and then when the next need arises we seem to forget that God took care

 of us before and we let the world throw doubt into our carnal minds!  

When we look close at what Jesus said about 

“compassion” for the “multitudes” 

we see that He did not command the disciples to look for food, 

all Jesus had said was 

“I do not want to send them away hungry…” 

and the self-centered disciples, just like us blurted out

 “Well what do you want us to do about it?” 

Jesus then asked this very important question 

to bring the disciples back to reality by asking 

JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”

 (Matthew 15:34) 

I can hear in that question Jesus saying to us,

 “When was the last time I failed to provide for your needs?” 

We are the creation and He is the Creator 

so we must Trust Him to equip us to accomplish 

that which He tasks us to do,

 be it feed ourselves or to feed 4000 in the wilderness! 

God has always provided in the past so why do we let the world make us think that

 God will abandon us in the future or that this time we are “on our own”?!? 

 Look at His Question and understand that by Him asking the disciples

 “How many loaves do YOU have?”

 Jesus is really saying to the disciples, 

“Look guys, the Father fed 5000 

so do you think He has run out of bread, 

because surely YOU don’t think YOU have enough bread 

to accomplish that which only God the Creator can do?”!?!?! 

 Why is it that we fail to give God the Glory when every time

 we see God work we somehow think that He is doing His “last miracle” 

and we let the world convince us that God’s “magic lamp” 

will no longer work so we should return to our sin!?!? 

Jesus asked that Question to the disciples 

to bring them back to the reality that 

God’s Mercy and Grace endures Forever 

and His Provisions are both Limitless and Eternal!!! 

If we will but put what we have into His Capable Hands 

that He will Bless what we turn over to Him and we will be “filled” 

and we will find the Truth of God that He “is the Everlasting God, 

the Creator of the ends of the earth, 

He will never grow tired and weary 

and His understanding no one can fathom.” 

(Isaiah 40:28) ——— 

just think how many loaves of bread that God has provided to the world 

since the Garden of Eden ——— and yet we ask God by our doubt: 

“Are You getting tired yet God?” ——— 

like we could take over for Him now that He is tired 

and is no longer able to keep the stars in orbit 

or the sun rising in the sky every morning 

and we with our limited understanding 

will keep the universe spinning right along 

with our great scientific knowledge that cannot 

even explain how a bumble bee flies !?!?!?

 Really, how many grains of wheat have you created??? 

MAY 22 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 

MAY 22  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?”  

(Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord each day You are there to draw us closer, even if we 

have drifted and stumbled in our earthly weakness and Lord Your 

Faithfulness to be there for us shines like a beacon of Hope for us,

 no matter how dark the night. Lord forgive me for not abandoning 

myself totally to You and the Father’s Work for You are Worthy 

and You have blessed me so abundantly that there is 

nothing to hold me back except my selfishness. 

You have NEVER failed to provide for my needs

 yet Lord I find myself

 worrying about tomorrow 

at the expense of the “Joy” I could have in You today. 

Lord Jesus, grant it that my “faith in You” will grow 

to be called “great” 

and that all my desires will be for You and that there be

 no thought of “self” except for the fact

 that I have abandoned my “self” to You.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is always 

the Son of God and He is always Teaching us the 

Truth of God 

so that our 

Faith in God 

will become the cornerstone of our daily lives that we may live the

 “Abundant Life” 

that God desires for each of us. 

When we look at this Question Jesus asked in 

Matthew 15:34 JQ#17: “How many loaves do you have?”

 our worldly tendency is to think to ourselves 

“This is really a simple question” 

and we miss the Great Lesson that Jesus is Teaching! 

The more I read the scriptures, the more I realize 

that there are Lessons in every story, in the order of the stories, 

in the number of stories, in the people of the stories, 

and certainly in all the 

Words that our Lord and Savior 

used to convey the 

“Truth of God” 

to the lost and dying world He came to 

SAVE! 

Study the Word enough and one glaring Divine Question

 emerges as one of those

“Truths of God” 

and that question is:

 “Why would the all-knowing God of all creation, 

send His Son to the earth with the Plan of Salvation 

and the Gift of Eternal Life, 

and then waste His time and energy by asking 

such insignificant questions like 

‘How many loaves do you have?’” 

Indeed, why would the Master Teacher ask about bread 

when He Himself has declared,

 “I Am the Bread of Life”? 

The “simple” Question becomes “significant” when we realize 

that God does not need us for anything, 

especially knowledge about His creation, 

nor does God need us to supply information to Him 

about loaves of bread, so the Question must be viewed 

not as a Question for His benefit or knowledge but for ours. 

To start understanding the “simple-but-significant” Question we must look to our

 faith in the Divine Character of God 

and know that Jesus coming to earth, taking on flesh, 

suffering on the cross, and defeating death and the grave 

was NOT so that we could inform Him 

of the number of loaves of bread we have! 

If Jesus asks us what appears to us as a “simple” Question we

 should immediately stop and look at the context of the Question 

and remember who it is that it is asking it. In this instance, 

Jesus had healed a woman’s daughter of severe “demon-possession” 

and stated to the woman, 

“O woman, great is your faith!

 Let it be to you as you desire.” 

and then Matthew records 

“And her daughter was healed that very hour.” 

(Matthew 15:28) 

As soon as Jesus had healed the woman’s daughter 

and made His declaration about her “faith”, He 

“departed from there…went up on the mountain…

then great multitudes came to Him.” 

(Matthew 15:30) 

Why the multitudes had come to Him is obvious — because Jesus 

had been healing, casting out demons, and doing “Kingdom Work” 

and it was obvious to those that were coming to Him that He 

had something to give them and that “something” that Jesus had

 and was freely giving to the multitudes was from God

 and well worth seeking Him out for!

 Matthew records that the multitudes that came to Him 

“[brought] …with them the lame, blind, 

mute, maimed, and many others; 

and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, 

and He healed them. 

So the multitude marveled 

when they saw the mute speaking, 

the maimed made whole, the lame walking, 

and the blind seeing 

and they glorified the God of Israel.” 

(Matthew 15:29-31) 

Then in this setting of the multitudes glorifying God 

for the great works Jesus had been doing in the Father’s Name

 and for the Kingdom’s Sake,  

“Jesus called His disciples to Himself” 

and made this statement to them 

before asking them the “simple” Question about bread —

Jesus said, 

“I have compassion on the multitudes, 

because they have now continued with Me three days 

and have nothing to eat. 

And I do not want to send them away hungry,

 lest they faint on the way.” 

(Matthew 15:32) 

Note that Jesus did not have to ask the Question until His disciples

 failed the “faith” test because they failed to look at the situation as

 an opportunity to glorify God ——— but instead the disciples questioned

 the ability of God to provide for the multitudes that He had just healed! 

The disciples, instead of asking “how” God was going to 

accomplish this great feat, they asked, 

“Where could we get enough bread in the wilderness 

to fill such a great multitude?” 

(Matthew 15:33)

 It was at this point that Jesus begins His Lesson and He started it with 

JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” 

(Matthew 15:34) 

Once we see the context of the Question and consider “who” is asking and

 “why” is He asking us about the numbers of loaves in our possession,

 the question is no longer simple but is very serious! 

The real question here is

 

“Do you question the ONE that has never failed 

to provide for the needs of the world 

or 

are you going to try to accomplish God’s Work 

with your meager means?” 

After all,  if you’re going to feed the multitudes yourself, then I guess

 it would be smart to inventory how much bread you have the ability to provide!

 Perhaps we need to read what Isaiah said 

about the Earthly Mission of Jesus: 

“As the rain and snow comes down from heaven 

(Jesus IS the Living Water 

that became flesh and dwelt among us) 

and does not return there without watering the earth, 

causing it to bud and flourish, so that it brings forth 

seed for the sower and  bread for the eater, 

so is [My Word] that goes forth from My mouth,

 [My beloved Son Jesus]  

will not return to Me empty but will accomplish what I desire

 and achieve the purpose for which I sent [Him]!” 

(Isaiah 55:10-11)  

Remember always that Jesus is the Bread of Life

 and if you share Jesus then you have shared the One

 that can feed 5000 with two loaves and 5 fish 

and still gather up 12 baskets of left-overs!!! 

Without God we hunger,

 but with God 

we have plenty —

 more than enough!!!