Sometime during the night I was thinking about Matthew 14
(and parallels in the other Gospels) where Jesus has been teaching the people. At
the end of the day the disciples suggest that Jesus should send the crowds away
to find food. Jesus responds, “They need not go away; you give them something
to eat” (Matt. 14:16). He knew perfectly well that they didn’t have enough food
on hand to serve more than 5000 people. He already knew how He planned to
provide the food for them. I was reminded of an interview where Dallas Jenkins
said,
“God does impossible math... Your job is not to feed the 5000 but to give Him your loaves and fish… My job is not to worry about the impact or to worry about the multiplication, it’s just to make sure whatever loaves and fish I do provide are as good and healthy as they can be.”
Some of us are pretty good at worrying about the details.
“How is this going to work?” “What if...?” My personality leads to me look for
all the answers before anyone asks me the questions, because I don’t want to
look ignorant or incompetent. (Yeah, I know, pride and shame are flip sides of
the same coin.) I have to be reminded often “That’s not your job.” Not only is
it impossible for any person to know all the answers or to have all the
resources, God actually delights in showing up in our weakness.
He can multiply resources in ways we never even imagined. He
has answers to questions we never thought of asking. He arranges circumstances
for events we never expected. All He asks is that we keep showing up and giving
Him what little we have to offer, in particular through the spiritual gifts He
has given us.
“Having gifts that differ according to the grace give to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom. 12:6-8).
We each do our small part and trust God for the outcome. Part
of the challenge, at least for me, is in discerning where my part ends and God’s
begins. I could research, study, and plan for eons and never feel like I’m done.
There comes a time when we each have to say, “I’ve done what I know to do,” and
let it go. If God wants something to happen, He can do it without me figuring
out all the details. In fact, He will get more glory if I end up saying, “Oh, I
never would have thought of that.”
Even the disciples didn’t get it. Shortly after the feeding
of the 5000, they had the same question with a crowd of 4000. “Where are we to
get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?” (Matt.
15:33). Human math just doesn’t quite add up when God is involved. At such
times, I think it is okay (though hard) to say, “God, I can’t make sense of
this, so I guess my job is to trust You now.”
In what is becoming one of my favorite scenes in the Gospels,
a man brought his son to the disciples and asked them to cast out the evil spirit
that was tormenting him. The disciples were failing miserably when Jesus showed
up and proclaimed, “All things are possible for one who believes.” The father
cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24). The disciples hadn’t yet
figured out that they didn’t have the power to do anything apart from God. The
job for the disciples, as for all of us, is to believe God can do and will do
things we could never ask or imagine, because that’s His job.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on
your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make
straight your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6).
© 2025 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.
