I was recently challenged listening to a message dealing with faith. The phrase “I don’t know” was used as an illustration. I can say, “I don’t know”, with fear and doubt, wringing my hands, or I can say “I don’t know” what God is going to do, but I am praying in faith, and thanking Him in advance for the outcome.
As I heard this, my mind immediately went to Jesus when He fed the five thousand. Could this have been a teaching moment – a demonstration of faith – for the disciples? Imagine Jesus, fully God, but fully man. The disciples were told to feed the crowd. The response was a declaration of the impossibility, even the ridiculousness of the task. Jesus instructed His disciples to seat the vast crowd in anticipation of being able to feed them all. He took two loaves and fish, all the food that they could find, and He gave thanks. All Jesus had in the natural was two small loaves of bread and some fish, but what He had access to in the spiritual would feed five thousand people, with left overs!
Jesus gave thanks to His Father. Was this an act of belief on Jesus’ part in His Father’s provision through Him? Psalm 145: 16: “ You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing”. Is this the Son teaching us, show and tell fashion, to pray with thanksgiving for what is not yet seen?
Oh, to be able to say like the apostle Paul, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7.
If I do this, I can say, then, with confidence, “I don’t know what God is going to do, but I am praying in faith, thanking God in advance, for whatever it is!”
~ Susan Kewin
Christ Fellowship member
