Sea of Galilee near Tabgha (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Scripture Reference: Matthew 15:29-39

Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee where many people came to Him. They brought the sick and disabled to Him, putting them at His feet. He healed those brought to Him.

The people were in awe as they saw with their own eyes how the mute started speaking, the crippled limbs made well, the paralyzed walking and the blind people receiving their sight. They had enough insight to recognize these things as a gift from God and praised Him accordingly.

After 3 days of this, Jesus called His disciples closer and told them that He is concerned about the people who have been there with Him for 3 days. By this time they had no more food left to eat. He didn’t want to send them back as hungry as they were because He didn’t want them to collapse from hunger along the way.

The disciples didn’t know how they were going to solve this dilemma. They didn’t have nearly enough to feed all the people before they left. They were in a remote place and there were no shops nearby from where they could buy food.

Jesus shifted their focus from what they did not have (no shops, not enough food) to what they did have. “How many loaves do you have?” They only had 7 loaves of bread and a few small fish. With that, He told the crowd to sit down. He gave thanks for what they did have. He broke the bread, gave them to the disciples who in turn served the people and everyone ate and was satisfied.

Amazing things can happen when we take our eyes off what we don’t have and focus on what we do have, thank God for it and share it with others in need. Not only were everyone satisfied, but there were seven basketfuls of leftovers. The number of people counted there were 4000 men excluding women and children.

It is natural for us to want to focus on what we don’t have. We look around us and see how far we fall short. But Jesus takes our eyes away from what we don’t have and puts our focus on the right things. Instead of looking around and measuring our shortcomings, He teaches us to look up for it is in God that we will find no limits –no limits in resources, no limits in strength and power and no limits to His great love and mercy.

“Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.” Hebrews 12:1b-2a NLT

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