 God wants to do great things through us. Are we ready?
Not too long ago I was reading the story of the feeding of the five thousand again. You can find that in Luke 9. I noticed that Jesus offers His disciples a great opportunity to do something special. The disciples were worried about the large crowd of people that surrounded the Messiah. In the meantime Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom and He healed people with all kind of diseases. When evening was upon them, the disciples came to Him with their worried thinking, and asked Him to send the people home. And you know what Jesus' reaction was? You give them something to eat! In other words, why ask Me to do something about it, this is your chance, test your faith, put it into practice. Do something! Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (Luke 9:12-13). Their response to Jesus' command was a clear sign of unbelief and doubt: We have limited resources Lord. You don't seriously mean that you want us to solve this problem? Do we recognize this response? Jesus wants to do great things through us, and often all we can see are obstacles and limitations. Jesus sees opportunities; we see impossibilities and have excuses. In the Old Testament we can find a similar story in 2 Kings 4:42-44. The man of God (Elisha) orders his servants to feed 100 people with 20 loaves of bread. They had their doubts, they found it hard to believe in the impossible: "How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked. But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the Lord. In the Old Testament we see this great miracle performed by men in response to God's word. In the New Testament we see an even greater miracle performed by Jesus. And what about us? What does Jesus say to us who believe in Him? Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father (John 14:12). What is your excuse?
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 If I asked you to mention the one thing that brings pure joy in your life, what would you answer?
Playing with the dog? Having the grandkids over? Winning the lottery? A walk on the beach? It wouldn't surprise me if we all came up with a different answer. Of course, there are no right or wrong answers here. There is, however, a surprising biblical answer. Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance (James 1:2-3). Excuse me? Calling the testing of our faith pure joy requires quite a shift in our thinking. The trials are not necessarily pure joy, but the testing of our faith is, because it develops perseverance. Why is it so important to have perseverance? Perseverance must finish it work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (James 1:4). Now we're talking. I love this verse because it tells me that the development of perseverance in my life must finish its work; in other words, there is an end to every test of faith. The answer to our 'why do we need perseverance' question is even more encouraging: so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. I don't know about you, but that is what I want.
The testing of our faith (sometimes through trial and error) is nothing more than the development of perseverance, which will make us mature, complete, lacking nothing. Is that pure joy, or what?
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AuthorMarja is a passionate traveler, lover of books, and a bi-lingual Blogger. She has a heart 4 Jesus, is the co-founder of Traveling Light, and the owner of Frisse Kijk ArchivesCategories
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