Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Elisha said, “Hear Yahweh’s word. Yahweh says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if Yahweh made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.””
(2 Kings 7:1-2)

“In those days, when there was a very great multitude, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to himself and said to them, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have stayed with me now three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way.” His disciples answered him, “From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.””
(Mark 8:1-5)

The Israelites had been saved REPEATEDLY by the Lord. He’d told their king where ambushes and traps were. He stopped raiding parties from attacking them. God had shown up to save the king from politically sticky situations. This was NOT a case of having heard nothing from God, seeing nothing from God, and being trapped in the weeds alone. God had shown up again and again and again. But God wasn’t doing things the way they thought He should. Or in the time they thought He should. In fact, one man felt that since God hadn’t stopped the siege, God couldn’t lift the siege. They were chained up by what they could see and what they were experiencing, not what God could do.

Jesus asked His disciples to feed the crowd of people that were all around them. This is NOT the first time He had asked this (Mark 6:30-44). The first time He asked to feed the people, they had FIVE loaves. Jesus had blessed them and trusted the Father to come through – and He had. They had fed all those people. Jesus was asking them to feed FEWER people with MORE loaves. But their reaction was the same: they couldn’t see it. They couldn’t see beyond what THEY could produce. Even though they had experienced God working through them healing, delivering, and physical miracles. Would He do it again? COULD He do it again? They didn’t ask those two questions. They looked at what was before them, knew they couldn’t do it themselves, and gave up before they tried.

Summary

There is NO WAY that WE are going to do it. We can’t heal. We can’t cast out evil spirits. We can’t make physical resources stretch or appear. We can’t really do anything that’s against the physical laws of the world we inhabit. But frequently we need more. Our backs end up against the wall. Our lives in danger. Our abilities fallen short. Which is where God challenges us to trust. In OUR weakness, there is NO DOUBT that it is HIS strength that gets us through. That makes the miracle. That makes the day. That PROVIDES. If we are willing to align with God, we can let go of the LIMITATIONS of our sight and our feelings. We can look BEYOND what is all around us. We can look instead to what GOD says is real, what GOD says is true, and what GOD says is possible. We cannot have that apart from trusting in God. We cannot experience that outside of Jesus. We cannot walk in that outside God. It is in HIM that all things are possible. It is in HIM that we overcome. HE does the work. WE get to agree and go with Him.