Monday Motivation #34 Don’t You Understand?
I believe I’m not alone in saying that God has been so faithful to me! I can look back in my life and see where he has been Savior, Provider, Healer, Protector, Giver of Peace, and my Strength. He is my Hope. But even so, there are times I fail to see, and, I don’t understand Who Jesus is!
In Mark 8, Jesus and the disciples are ready to cross the lake and the disciples begin to argue because they had forgotten bread. I guess they didn’t make a grocery list! But as they argue, Jesus reminds them of the 5000 and 4000 people he had fed with a few loaves and fish and He has them remember the leftovers they had collected.
Didn’t they realize that if Jesus could feed thousands with so little he could certainly provide for them? Didn’t they understand WHO He was? All that He was? They had walked with him and witnessed miracles of power and healing. They had heard his words and yet they still didn’t understand. The disciples not only lacked bread, but they also lacked faith.
While I can hear the exasperation in his voice to the disciples, I can’t help but hear the exasperation in his words to me. “What about you, Robin, don’t you understand?” Would Jesus speak those words to you? We’ve seen his provision. We’ve seen his healing. We’ve seen his power in our lives and yet we still doubt, worry, fear, fret, and argue with others over insignificant matters. Why can’t we see it? Why don’t we understand? Where is our faith?
Jesus is the Bread of Life. He provides for all of our needs, the first being our need for salvation. It is only through faith in Jesus alone that we are saved. When the disciples were looking for other things, they failed to see, and sometimes so do we, that Jesus Christ is Messiah, the Anointed One, Jesus is God, Jesus is all we need; Jesus is Enough!
© 2019 Robin R King
Mark 8:13-21 New Living Translation (NLT)
13 So he got back into the boat and left them, and he crossed to the other side of the lake.
Yeast of the Pharisees and Herod
14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’[a] Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.
John 6:35 New Living Translation (NLT)
35 Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
