Another level

When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus all that they had done. He took them and withdrew privately to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out, they followed Him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and cured those who needed healing.

Late in the day, the Twelve approached and said to Him, "Send the crowd away, so they can go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find food and lodging, because we are in a deserted place here."

"You give them something to eat, " He said.

"We have no more than five loaves and two fish, they said, unless we go and buy food for all these people."

Then He told His disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of 50 each." They did so and had them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them. He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the crowd. Everyone ate and was filled, then they picked up 12 baskets of leftover pieces. Luke 9:10-17

The apostles had just returned from their successful mission, they would have felt 10 feet tall, they had made it to a new level of authority, they were now the team. Have you ever experienced this? You are delegated to do a job, one that was larger than anything you had ever done before and now you are on a high. Jesus graciously allows the crowd to interrupt their retreat but the apostles think they can advise Him. They tell him to send the people away, yet Jesus comes back with another growth challenge, "You feed them!" They think naturally, rather than spiritually. They had just learned that God was their provider through the the whole missions trip yet, straight away they forget. 

Why is it when a new challenge arises we assume God is not up for the job? Why do we determine how we can solve the problem naturally? There was no way the disciples could feed 5,000 people, without God's intervention, in other words a greater miracle was required.

By doing this miracle Jesus corrects the disciples thinking about how great they were to how great Jesus was. He now asserts His leadership and authority and shows them, "Boys, you still have some growing to do, follow Me!"

Every time we think we have arrived we have only begun the next step in a new field. God is the master planner, master designer, master architect. Allow Him room to be God and don't try and box Him! Amen!