JUNE 22 JQ#17-3 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JUNE 22    JQ#17-3 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, just the use of 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? Yet when I consider it further that the very reason I feel unworthy is the very reason that God sought me out — it is because I am a sinner that He cares enough about my eternal soul that God sent a solution to correct my problem — the solution to my sin is to give it to Jesus because Jesus was sent 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

JUNE 22   JQ#17-3 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)  This question, when viewed from the perspective that it occurred when Jesus called the 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 that demonstrated God’s ability to provide for the needs of the multitudes even in a wilderness setting, that the disciples jumped to a wrong conclusion of the statement Jesus just made: “I do not want to send them away hungry…” (Matthew 15:32) because they assumed that Jesus was going to do what He had done with the feeding of the five thousand when Jesus 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 arise we seem to forget that God took care of us before and we let the world throw doubt into our minds that God even cares for us! Looking closely at what Jesus said about “compassion” for the “multitudes” 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 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) God does not expect us to do His Work and 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 no longer able to keep the stars in orbit or the sun in the sky and we 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?