Why don’t we get it?
Why does it oftentimes seem like we can’t get it through our thick heads?
Many of us have seen God do amazing and perhaps even miraculous things.
The goal of these moments is that they would lead to a transformation of our minds.
Every time God intervenes… every time He keeps a promise… every time we see Him alter a situation… it’s an opportunity for us to begin to think differently.
The disciples often encountered situations like this.
They bore witness and participated in a miracle that fed 5,000 people.
Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish, blessed them, and gave them to His disciples to
distribute to the hungry audience.
The multiplication of the bread and fish took place through His followers’ hands.
In fact, there were 12 baskets left over… one for each disciple… one to carry with them that would ultimately serve as a reminder of that miracle and their involvement in it.
A little later on in the story, Jesus is moved with compassion for a group of 4,000 people who had been following Him for three days.
He knew that if He sent them away, they would faint as a result of a lack of food and the length of their journey.
Once again, Jesus performs the same miracle; only this time, He did it with seven loaves and a few small fish.
While Jesus expedited the meal, the disciples served.
They were again privileged to have participated in another great miracle.
Shortly after journeying from this location, the disciples became aware of the fact that they didn’t have much bread and began talking about their dilemma amongst themselves.
Jesus then asks them, “Do you not yet see or understand?” (see Mark 8:17).
Everything Jesus does is to ultimately produce an understanding of who He is and His ways within us.
When He asks the disciples, “Do you not yet see or understand?”, He’s ultimately saying, “Don’t you guys get it yet? Do you not yet see who I am and what I can do? Do you not yet believe?”
In other words, He’s longing for their minds to be renewed. He wants them to think differently. He wants them to remember what He has done so that the next time they face a similar circumstance, they respond in faith.
The way we look at or approach or respond to a situation reveals what we are believing in the moment.
Because the disciples didn’t have an answer for their own situation, it revealed that the two miracles they saw didn’t take root within them.
Now more than ever, the enemy of our souls is seeking to choke the seed of what caused us to believe.
The cares and anxiety of the world is shouting.
And although we have all to some extent experienced God in wonderful ways, we can be overcome by what’s standing before us and by what our ears have heard.
With all that is surrounding the Corona Virus (Covid-19), it’s easy to become overwhelmed the wrong way and to completely forget the amazing things we’ve seen God do in the past.
But this Virus isn’t unlike anything you’ve faced before.
We’ve all encountered trials. We’ve all faced fearful situations. We’ve all been privy to the panic that has surrounded the rumors of things over the years.
Because of this, I believe it’s time that we strengthen ourselves in the Lord.
I believe we must refamiliarize ourselves with Jesus.
Let us look back and recount ALL that He has done for us in our lives.
Let’s meditate and think upon His interventions, the way He answered us, and what we’ve seen Him do.
Then, and only then, will we begin to experience the renewing of our minds.
God is seeking to grow our faith. The enemy is wanting to destroy it.
The only reason we don’t respond in faith is because we have forgotten what God has done in the past.
The enemy has stolen it.
He steals it when worry becomes louder than truth.
The disciples failed to have faith to feed themselves after they were eye witnesses of seeing both crowds of 5,000 and 4,000 people having more than enough to eat.
They even failed to respond in faith to feed the crowd of 4,000 after they participated in the miracle that fed the 5,000.
The whole point of the miracles was to reveal the glory of Jesus and to cause them to have faith so that when they faced similar situations, they’d have an answer.
Now is a wonderful opportunity, no matter your level of faith, to allow the Holy Spirit to reintroduce Jesus to you again and to allow Him to remind you of all that God has done in your life for the sole purpose of strengthening your inner person and so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith.
As we do this, I believe we are going to see our response to this pandemic change. I believe we will look at with new eyes.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds Ministries