More Than Enough

Scripture: Luke 9:10-17

10 When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then he slipped quietly away with them toward the town of Bethsaida. 11 But the crowds found out where he was going, and they followed him. He welcomed them and taught them about the Kingdom of God, and he healed those who were sick. 12 Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.” 13 But Jesus said, “You feed them.” “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?” 14 For there were about 5,000 men there. Jesus replied, “Tell them to sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 So the people all sat down. 16 Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. 17 They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers! (Luke 9:10-17 NLT)

Jesus had recently sent the twelve apostles out two by two to preach the Kingdom of God, heal the sick, and cast out devils. Then the crowds showed up. Late that day, after teaching the crowds and healing the sick, the disciples were concerned about the huge crowd of hungry people. When they suggested Jesus send them away to look for food, Jesus said, “You feed them!” They had just spent a few weeks healing the sick and casting out demons, so they had some sense of the power of God available to them. Jesus essentially said, “Let’s feed them together!” So he took the famous five loaves and two fish, blessed them and began handing the broken pieces to the twelve. They, in turn, began to distribute the bread and fish to the people. The bread and fish multiplied in Jesus’ hands, and it multiplied again in the hands of each of the twelve disciples as they moved out among the more than five thousand people. When it was all finished and everyone had all they wanted to eat, the twelve disciples gathered up leftovers. They finished with twelve baskets more than they started with!

When we see the needs of the people, we say, “Jesus, these people need help!” Jesus says, “You help them! In fact, let’s help them together!” Then he says, “Bring me what you’ve got! It’ll be enough! Trust me!”

Prayer:

Father, I believe that many of us are at this very point right now. We’re aware of the needs but when we look at our resources, we know it’ll take a miracle! We’ll bring you what we have and trust you to make it more than enough. Let’s do this together! Amen!