[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 12/Jul/2026]
When Jesus was on earth, He often taught large groups of people. On one occasion, the crowd numbered over 5,000 people. He noticed that they were tired and hungry and asked his disciples to sort out food for them. His disciples couldn’t believe He had asked them to do this. How could they find enough food, and even if they did, how could they afford to buy the food to feed more than 5,000 people?
They looked and all they could find were 5 loaves of bread and two fishes from a young boy. We are not told, but perhaps he was the only person who was willing to offer up what he had. They brought the food to Jesus, perhaps to emphasise the absurdity and impossibility of what he had asked them to do.
Many of you will be familiar with what happened next (a rendition of the full story is in the gospel of John, chapter 6). Jesus took the food, gave thanks to God, and broke the loaves of bread and got the disciples to share them out to the crowd. They not only fed the crowd but had 12 basketfuls of broken pieces left over.
We will all go through phases in life, when we are faced with situations that we feel ill-equipped for. Sometimes it is to do with a lack of finances, other times, we feel physically or intellectually overwhelmed by the task at hand. There are times when our self esteem makes us feel we aren’t worthy of the position we occupy, or that we won’t do the task as well as the other chap.
We have all been blessed with certain skills/gifts/abilities. We might not feel they are good enough to deal with the situations we find ourselves in, but the story above helps us to know that what you have, when placed in God’s hands, will end up being more than enough.
Rather than look at the enormity of the task or situation, let’s offer up what little we have to God and allow Him to use it to accomplish the tasks, and while God is sorting that out. I would suggest that you start looking for how to get hold of 12 baskets (maybe more), as you will probably need them to collect the leftovers.
Resources:
[1]
Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.
Bible dates:
Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.
Horley Baptist Church onlineHBC main site
Confidential prayer link
Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
Previous reflection: What If I’m Not Good Enough? by Dazz Jones
Contributed by David Makanjuola; © David Makanjuola