Weekly Devotion

Seeing that it is Father's day on Sunday, I decided to write something about God's Fatherheart today, concerning His desire for us as His children. I will continue with Moses' story next week.

Now all of us have a general idea of Fatherhood. Some have memories of good fathers, some have memories of bad fathers and others didn't have fathers, but they observed how fathers acted. Now interestingly that is one of the reasons that God gave us families and parents so that we can understand His relationship with us a little better. Imagine if we didn't have a thing such as family around, it would be really difficult to understand God as our Heavenly Father.

So today I would like to draw a comparison of one of the things that will make a good father proud and that would make God proud as well. (I'll leave bad fathers for now, as I am drawing the comparison with God Who is inherently good.) What do you think will make a good father proud of his children? Yes, if they achieve their dreams, yes, if they do their best in all they do, yes, if they get a good job, but I think what will make him proud above all else is if his children matured and acted as mature adults, imitating the good qualities that he has taught them, and of course when his children accept Jesus into their lives. That is what will make him proud. If his children learned from his mistakes and imitated the good things he tried to teach them and matured into lovely Christians and lovely citizens.

And the same is with God. Do you know what He desires of you amongst other things? He wants you to mature in Him. He wants you to grow in your Christian faith. He wants you to mature and present His good qualities and characteristics to the world. He wants you to get to know Him, so that you can effectively present Him to the world. You are His ambassador on earth after all, supposed to imitate the practices of our heavenly home.

But the sad part is that most Christians remain babies in the faith. Most Christians, once saved, relax and put their feet up spiritually. They feel that they are going to heaven, they have their ticket and now they can go on living on milk. They can stay babies and cry uncontrollably when something goes wrong. They can demand what they want, and they want it now, just like a baby. And they are fine with it. They want to stay like that.

But that is not God's desire. He wants us to grow. Imagine you go to a fancy restaurant and your 24 year old son sits there with his bottle of milk, while you are eating a sumptuous steak. And all you say to him is "Goo goo, Gaa gaa" like to a baby. That is embarrassing! People will start staring at you! But somehow we think it is okay in our spiritual life. We can continue drinking milk until Jesus comes back.

Paul warns about this continually. For example look at 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, "Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn't talk to you as I would to mature Christians. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. I had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn't handle anything stronger. And you still aren't ready, for you are still controlled by your own sinful desires."

God wants us to grow up. He wants to trust us with more of His Spiritual truths and wants us to move out in faith for all He has planned for us, but He cannot do it if we stay babies. He wants ambassadors for Him and unfortunately a baby does not make a good ambassador! Those of you with children will know that a baby is selfish and thinks only of himself and how his immediate need can be satisfied. That is all. He doesn't consider others and he certainly doesn't stop crying when you tell him to! Now in the natural it is normal, and even in the spiritual it is normal if you have just been born again. But if you stay a baby it is not acceptable in the normal or in the spiritual. We need to grow up in God. How? I will still do a whole study on it later on, but for now it is a very good start if you can really start learning and exploring your Bible and if you can make time with the Lord throughout the week, not only on Sundays. Learn what He wants to teach you, search the Scriptures yourself, don't just rely on what someone else is telling you. Start taking responsibility and learn about all the wonderful things God has said about you in the Bible and start living according to it.

Grow up and start making our Father proud, proud to have mature sons and daughters, presenting Him to the world.

Father God, please forgive us that we are still small in our faith. Forgive us if we don't make the effort to grow, but please help us to. Help us in making time to grow, we want to grow and we want to make You proud. In Jesus' Name. Amen

So let's continue with the story of Moses' life. After he killed the Egyptian he fled into the land of Midian. It must have been a horrible experience for him. He was used to luxury, the best of the best and here he was in the wilderness plain of Midian. He was alone. He could never return to his Egyptian family and he couldn't return to be part of the Hebrew slaves. He was trapped in the wilderness. He must have been very hungry and must have felt totally deserted. He arrived at a well and sat there, not knowing which way to turn. And the Bible tells us, despite his terrible circumstances he was still prepared to stand up for what is right.

"Now it happened that the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came regularly to this well to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father's flocks. But other shepherds would often come and chase the girls and their flocks away. This time Moses came to their aid, rescuing the girls from the shepherds. Then he helped them draw water for their flocks." Exodus 2:16, 17

Moses could have wallowed in his dire situation and let the shepherds chase the girls away. He could have reasoned that it was none of his business and not lift a finger to help them, but he didn't. He used the military skills he undoubtedly learned from the Egyptians. They had the most advanced army in the world back then and these shepherds would certainly not have been able to stand up against his sophisticated fighting techniques. So Moses easily came to their aid. And by doing this, he was invited into the priest of Midian's family. This one act of bravery, gave him a new home and new people to love.

God's Hand can clearly be seen here. He not only led Moses to a new family, He led him to a family who believed in Him. How wonderful. In all of Midian, God led him to the priest of it. Romans 8:28 definitely applied to Moses here, even though it was written years after his existence. But God is the same yesterday, today and forever and His principles never change:

"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes for them." Romans 8:28

God will make everything work to your good, even the bad things that happen to you. But notice here that Moses didn't just passively sit and wait for good things to happen to him. No, he continued to stand up for what is right. He continued to help where he could. I wonder where he would have ended up if he didn't help those girls. Would he still have been part of the priest of Midian's family? Only God knows.

But the point is, while you are waiting for your breakthrough to come, or waiting for God's promises to come to pass, do what you can do. Stand up for what is right and help where you can. That action might be the one thing that will lead you closer to where you need to be.

Lord You are wonderful, You are amazing. You are the One we long for. Help us to see where we can help. Help us to grow in Your Kingdom and be a blessing to others. We want to honor and obey You. You are our King. Amen

Moses killed an Egyptian who mistreated the Hebrew people and with that one act revealed his choice between his Egyptian upbringing and his Hebrew roots. He chose to be part of his people's suffering. Pharaoh soon found out about this and wanted Moses killed. He realized now that Moses' allegiance lied with his own people and not with them. It must have been a very sad day for Moses' Egyptian mother. She had loved Moses as her own son and here he turned his back on them. Poor woman, and she didn't even have the Lord to comfort her…

 Anyway, Moses realized that Pharaoh wanted to kill him and he fled into the wilderness of Midian. Now before I go on, I would like us to look at the events from the perspective of the writer of Hebrews:

"It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be treated as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God's people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of the Messiah than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the great reward that God would give him. It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt. He was not afraid of the king. Moses kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the One who is invisible." Hebrews 11:24-27

First of all I would like you to notice that Moses' murder of the Egyptian was not mentioned here. God is so wonderful in His grace. He promises us that if we live for Him and ask for forgiveness of our sins, He would remember them no more. Undoubtedly here God chooses not to mention it again, in His eyes it never happened. He chose to inspire the Hebrews writer to write only the good things about Moses.

Secondly I can't help but wonder how Moses knew about God. This passage clearly states that he did know about Him. But how? Moses grew up in an Egyptian palace where several gods were worshipped and the God of the Hebrews were certainly not one of them. So he couldn't have heard of Him from them. Plus there's no evidence that he ever heard about God from his own people, as it would seem that he didn't visit them often. Plus they were in a depressed state and undoubtedly thought that God had forgotten about them. So how did he know? God must have revealed Himself to him. How? I don't know, maybe through a dream like Joseph, or maybe He appeared to him or maybe He spoke to Moses through His Creation. We will never know, but He must have, as Moses had a deep faith in Him. Even today we can know that God reveals Himself to all people.

God then reminded me of two scriptures:

"For the truth about God is known to unbelievers instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see His invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God." Romans 1:19, 20

"Even when Gentiles, who do not have God's written law, instinctively follow what the law says, they show in their hearts they know right from wrong. They demonstrate that God's law is written in them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right." Romans 2:14, 15

God is amongst all people and He reveals Himself to all people. This could be quite an extensive topic, but in short I do believe that all people will have a chance one way or another to accept Jesus into their lives. He is faithful and just and He wants all people saved. He would therefore either let people hear through missionaries or speak to people through the Creation itself. I have even heard of missionaries going into Africa to show the Jesus' film, where the locals have confirmed that they have seen the man portraying Jesus on the film appearing to them. How amazing! He will not let people be lost without giving them a chance.

In our countries, we of course have no excuse whatsoever of not hearing about Jesus. We have ample opportunity, unfortunately a lot of these opportunities are wasted and even trampled upon. Why don't we make an effort to reach out to these people too? Be a missionary right there where you are. Preach the gospel with your life and be the living Word of God!

Thank you Lord that we can know that You will never leave us or forsake us. You are so awesome and true. Help us to preach Your wonderful Word by the way we live our lives. Amen

Let's continue with Moses' life story. Moses was living a very comfortable life in the palace and then at a certain stage he found out that he was in fact one of the Hebrews and not an Egyptian at all. As I've said before this must have rattled him. So one day he decided to go out and visit them. No doubt he had seen them at work throughout his life, building the mighty empire of Egypt. But this time it struck him how hard they were forced to work. For the first time it touched his heart. It could have been that he had only recently found out that he was actually one of them, we won't know, but it would seem logical why he suddenly cared about them. Their mistreatment was such a shock to him that he even intervened when he saw one of the Egyptians beating one of the Hebrew slaves and in his anger he killed the Egyptian. In that split second he made a choice between his life as a prince of Egypt and his heritage of being a Hebrew. He chose to give up his life of luxury to rather help his people. What a tremendous thing to do. He had everything going for him; he could have died a rich man living in ease. But he decided not to. He stood up for what is right.

Sometimes in order for us to step into God's destiny for us, we too need to stand up for what is right and take a firm stand against all that is against God and His Word. We need to step forward and make a choice. God always gives us a choice. Now here in Moses' case it was clear what was the right thing to do, however difficult it might have been, but these days the difference between right and wrong becomes very hazy.

For example is it right for us to take some of the work's stationery home for our own use? Is it right for us to cheat just a little bit on our tax return? I mean the government is only wasting the taxes, aren't they? Is it right for us to fast, only to do it to lose weight instead of honoring God? Is it right for us to pay our workers the bare minimum, after all they are prepared to work for it? Is it right for us to stay at work a little longer to flirt with our married colleague? Is it right for you to charge for extra overtime you didn't really work?

I can go on and on. The point is, the time has come for us to stand up for what is right. No matter how unpopular we will be. We need to prove our integrity before we can truly stand up for all that God has planned for us and move into His best for us.

However there is just one thing I want to make clear. Moses did make a choice for his people here which were very noble, but it still was not right for him to kill the man. God does not condone it. The Ten Commandments were not given yet, but God clearly told Noah after the flood that murder was forbidden:

"And murder is forbidden. Animals that kill people must die, and any person who murders must be killed. Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God's image." Genesis 9:5, 6

Moses also knew in his heart it was wrong, because he immediately buried the Egyptian he killed. He felt guilty and didn't want anyone else to know. However God was gracious to him here and allowed him to escape. He used this opportunity to get Moses out of the Egyptian palace and into His training ground; even though murder was not something He had wanted Moses to commit. God can even use the bad things we have done to further His plans for us.

So please, don't think you are standing up for something good, by destroying someone else. Be careful to act according to the Holy Spirit's leading and not your own anger.

Lord, please help us to stand up for what is right and to choose You in every situation. At the end of the day we are only living to please You. You are our amazing Lord and King. Amen

We are still continuing with the series on Moses' life. We have seen how his mother hid him from the Egyptian warriors and how she put him in a basket on the Nile by faith. His sister followed the basket, and when she saw that one of Pharaoh's daughters found him, she offered that his mother nursed him until he was old enough to return to the palace. The princess agreed and so Moses stayed with his mother until he was old enough to go to the palace and become a prince himself. What an amazing turn of events. Here he was, a boy born of a slave, destined to be killed after his birth, and now he was going to live in the palace, as a prince of Egypt, one of the mightiest nations of the ancient world. He was made for life!

Now the Bible doesn't elaborate on his life as he grew up. We can only speculate. I have watched a lot of animations about Moses' life and in it they depict Moses' life as one of utter luxury. He was waited upon, he attended the best schools the earth had to offer at that stage and he had every whim of his satisfied. He had everything any human being could wish for.

Now the next thing the Bible says about him is:

"Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his people, the Israelites, and he saw how hard they were forced to work." Exodus 2:11

Now how Moses knew the Israelites were 'his people' we don't know. He went to live in the palace after he was weaned, which could be anything between 1 and 3 years old. So he could have vaguely remembered living amongst the Israelites. But more likely someone might have told him. Maybe his Egyptian mother, or maybe he had heard rumors going round that he was not truly an Egyptian. Maybe he looked a bit different from the other Egyptians, we will never know. But I can just imagine the shock when he found out that his Egyptian parents weren't truly his parents and his brothers not truly his brothers. It must have hurt. He must have felt like an illegitimate child, as if he didn't belong anywhere. He wasn't a true Egyptian, and he wasn't a true Hebrew either as he knew nothing of their ways. He was merely taught from childhood to despise the 'slaves' and to simply use them to build their empire. He must have had true turmoil inside.

Now if we look at his life we can perfectly see that he had to grow up in the palace to understand the ways of the Egyptians. He was the perfect one to free them as he knew how the minds of the Egyptians worked. Plus as an Egyptian he learned how to read and write, which the Hebrews didn't. He was thus the perfect one to receive the 10 commandments from God later on and the perfect one to write down the Law and ultimately the first 5 books of the Bible. He was simply bred and handpicked for the task. But he didn't know it then.

We also don't understand some things that come on our path. Why did we have to work at a certain place? Or why did we have to study that? Or why did certain people cross our paths? Or why can't we have children? The list can go on and on. But when we look back on our lives we will see the pieces fit together and work to our good. Even the things we did without consulting God first, can work to our good if we entrust Him with our lives. God is good and will use things along the way to prepare you for your task ahead. Just trust in Him and also do your part by listening to Him and being obedient to His Voice!

Lord, thank you that You have a wonderful plan for our lives. We might not understand everything that is happening to us, but You do. May it all, whether good or bad, work to the good of us that are called according to Your purposes. In Jesus' Name. Amen

Last week we spoke about the amazing courage Moses' mother had to first hide him away and then to follow the leading of the Lord and to place him in a little basket on the mighty river Nile. It took a lot of courage to do it given the circumstances and to let go of her child. Being a mother myself I cannot imagine doing it! I battle sometimes to leave them alone with someone else, never mind on a dangerous river! It is absolutely heart rendering when I think about it. But she trusted in God and knew that He will bless her act of faith. Now before I go on, I would just like to mention one thing. She had faith, because she knew the Lord had a plan for Moses. She didn't do this out of her own strength. And we need to do the same. We need to know first what God's plan/will is before we step out in faith. We cannot step out in faith, and stand firm in our belief if it is not God's plan for us. It will not work then. But I will talk more about this later on. For now know that she did what God placed in her heart to do.

Another person who I also see as a hero is Moses' sister, Miriam. She followed the little basket where Moses was in, all the way down the river. And when she saw that Pharaoh's daughter saw Moses and picked him up, she immediately reacted and approached her suggesting to find someone to nurse Moses for the princess. I think it took a lot of guts from her side to approach the princess like that. After all she was just a hated slave girl. The princess could have had her arrested for merely approaching them without being summoned. But Miriam didn't waver and took this special opportunity presented to her by God to reunite their family again.

We also need to be alert for opportunities that might come our way. The Holy Spirit inside of us will prompt us to act and we shouldn't be afraid to take advantage of them. Don't fear what might happen, but let the Holy Spirit guide you into action. Here Miriam reunited their family again. She suggested that her mother nurse the baby until he is old enough to go to the palace. What a wonderful reunion that must have been!

One comment in my Bible analyzed this situation beautifully. I would like to end of with this comment. Think and pray about it.

'Moses' mother was reunited with her baby! God used her courageous act of saving and hiding her baby to begin His plan to rescue His people from Egypt. God doesn't need much from us to accomplish His plan for our lives. Focusing on our human predicament may paralyze us because the situation may appear humanly impossible. But concentrating on God and His power will help us see the way out. Right now you may feel unable to see through your troubles. Focus instead on God and trust Him for the way out. That is all He needs to begin His work in you.'

Lord, we trust in You. Thank you for leading the way. Help us to step out in faith when we feel the Holy Spirit's prompting. And help us to make the most of the opportunities presented to us. In Jesus' Name. Amen

Last week we spoke about the terrible time surrounding Moses' birth. Pharaoh ordered that all the newborn Hebrew boys should be drowned in the Nile. Now Moses' parents saw what a beautiful boy he was. And they hid him from the Egyptian warriors for three months. How they did it I don't know, because any newborn baby cries some or other time. I think the Lord blessed their courage and gave them an unusually quiet child. Their act of faith earned them a standing in the 'Hall of faith' in Hebrews:

"It was by faith that Moses' parents hid him for three months. They saw that God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid of what the King might do." Hebrews 11:23

Amazing courage and faith. No doubt the Egyptians would have punished them or even killed them if they found out what they did!

Now when Moses got too big to be hidden away anymore, his mother summed up all her courage and put him into a basket made of papyrus reed and placed him on the Nile river. Where she got the idea to do this I don't know, but I believe that the Holy Spirit told her to do it.

Her poor mother's heart must have ached. Anything could have happened to him. A crocodile could have devoured him, the basket could have tipped and he could have drowned, anything was possible. But as the Hebrew writer suggests, she had faith that God would help. She didn't ask questions and she didn't blame God for this situation. She simply did what she could do amidst the evil surrounding her.

As I said last week, we all feel surrounded by evil on a regular basis. I think we also feel like Moses' mother did sometimes. And I think we feel so incompetent to do anything about it. I know I do. But like Moses' mother, we can do the little that God has placed in our hearts in His fight against evil. We should not take revenge in our own hands and we should not blame God, but we can pray. We can pray and intercede for our country and for our family and friends. Not only that, we must help people where we can and we must step out in faith whenever God tells us to. And then we can pray that God take our little efforts and make a big difference with it in His war against evil. All we need to do is be faithful with what He tells us to do.

Lord, help us to step out in faith whenever You require it of us. Give us clear guidance please, so that we know exactly what You want us to do. Lord we pray for our country and we pray that Your Will be done. Intervene in all the evil that is rampant, as we know it doesn't come from You. Please forgive us where we have sinned and help to free our country from any bondage that it might be under. We pray that in Jesus mighty Name. Amen

Last week we started a new series about Moses. I spoke about his bad beginning in life. He was one of thousands of Hebrew boys, born to slaves in Egypt, an absolute nobody in the eyes of the Egyptian rulers. But even worse than that, after his birth, he was destined to die. The Pharaoh and the Egyptian rulers had become alarmed at the rate at which the Hebrew population grew, they were afraid that they might overthrow them if they continue to multiply at this rate. They therefore decreed that all the newborn Hebrew boys should be thrown into the Nile river to drown.

What an awful thing to do! It must have been heartbreaking! I can just imagine the cries of heartbroken parents trying to save their precious little boys, trying to protect them from the ruthless, armed military men. They must have cried out to God, praying that He would help them, praying that He will come and rescue their children. But nothing happened. As far as we know all of them were killed, except for Moses.

The parents must have thought that the Lord had abandoned them. They must have thought that He didn't care. I think that a lot of them might even have turned against Him for allowing this to happen. 'How could He stand by and watch this happen?' They might have thought. Now we all know the story and we know that God did take vengeance on the Egyptians and He did bring them to their knees. But do you realize that it was 80 years after this incident? That is an immensely long time! Most of the parents who lost their children didn't even see the Lord taking vengeance. They must have died thinking that the Lord never helped them. Or maybe just maybe, they died with the hope that He will deliver them. Maybe they remembered what the Lord said to Abraham:

"You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth." Genesis 15:13,14

I truly hope that they remembered this promise of the Lord and they held unto it! I really do, it might have eased the pain of losing their sons.

Today we look around us and we also see a vast amount of injustice being done. We see murder, rape, kidnappings, bribery, embezzlement of money etc etc. And we might sometimes wonder where is God in all of this? Does He not see what is going on? We might even feel angry at Him especially when our family and friends are affected.

Just remember one thing, God is the Judge of all the earth and not one thing escapes His attention, not even one done in secret. He will judge and He will take vengeance at His appropriate time. It will happen. But it is not our job to take it in our own hands and it definitely is not our right to criticize Him. Our duty is to pray for our country and to pray for our protection. We have to, it is imperative that we do (I will do a whole teaching on that at another time). And after we've done all we can, we then need to trust in Him. Whenever I feel that all the injustice is getting too much for me I turn to Job 38 - 41 and then I realize once again how small I am and that all the answers lie in Him. There is no one like Him. I will end off with a few quotations from Job:

"Who is this that questions My wisdom with such ignorant words? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me if you know so much." Job 38: 2, 4

"Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God's critic, but do you have the answers?" Job 40:1

"Are you going to discredit My justice and condemn Me so you can say you are right? Are you as strong as God, and can you thunder with a voice like His?" Job 40:8, 9

Lord, You are absolutely in control. You are Sovereign and we give our lives to You. Please forgive us our sins and lead us into Your life everlasting. As we know only there will be true peace and quiet. Thank you Lord. Amen

I actually wanted to start another series today, but the Lord told me otherwise. He said I must do a series on Moses. Now at the start of all these devotions I did some writing on Moses, but now the Lord wants me to do a detail walkthrough about his life. And I hope it will be a wonderful blessing to you as it was to me!

Now Moses was an amazing person, a wonderful leader and someone to look up to. Even today the Jews and Christians view him as one of the greatest people who ever lived! But having said that his life certainly didn't look as if it will reach any area of greatness to start off with. He actually had a very bad beginning in life.

He was just another ordinary Hebrew boy, one of thousands. And not just that, he was the son of slaves in Egypt. He was a nobody and was destined to fade in with all the other desperate faces around him. The only future he possibly had was to be a slave for Pharaoh, to work to build the empire of Pharaoh, nothing else. His people had been doing that for 400 years. He had no prospects of achieving anything great in his life, absolutely none. Except for one thing, he had the Creator of the Universe at his side. But other than that, his future looked quite bleak.

Do you maybe also look at your life and wonder if anything good will ever come from it? Do you sometimes feel part of the system, wondering whether you will ever be able to make a difference? Do you sometimes feel trapped in a structure, not knowing if things will ever change? Do you sometimes feel like a nobody, on the road to nowhere?

Then remember to look at Moses. He was also trapped in a seemingly impossible situation. He was trapped in a system that looked like it will never change. But God was on his side and He used Moses to break free and to do mighty miracles. And He could use you too. He has the power to turn your life around. He has the mighty strength to raise you up. He has the authority over your life to help you achieve your purpose. All you need to do is to let Him.

Invite Him in and allow Him to work in your life. Give Him access, He would love to be part of your life. Spend time with Him, you won't be sorry.

Lord, thank you that You have a wonderful plan for our lives. Help us to walk in Your perfect plan. You are more than welcome in our lives. Fill our beings with Your Spirit. We know that true life is only found in You. Thank you Lord Amen

One day Jesus was teaching a huge crowd. They were following Him wherever He went especially because they saw His miracles as He healed the sick. Now it was getting late and the disciples suggested that Jesus send the people away in order to get food in the local villages, because there was nothing to eat in the deserted place. But Jesus suggested that they feed them. In unbelief they stared at Him.

"It would take a small fortune to feed them!" Philip replied. John 6:7

But then Andrew stepped forward with a little boy. He had five barley loaves and two fishes and he was prepared to share it with them all. Now you all know how Jesus took these five loaves and two fishes and multiplied it and fed five thousand men with it, not even including the women and children!

But for now I would like to return to the faith that this little boy had. We don't know his name or anything about him, but he had mountain moving faith. Imagine you were him. Here you are, far away from any village, far away from food. But despite that you had planned ahead and brought food along to sustain yourself in order to stay close to Jesus. And not only that, you worked cleverly with your food, and didn't indulge in it, you planned your meals to have enough left over to be able to follow Jesus. And now here the masses around you run into a food crises. They didn't plan as well as you did, they maybe even gobbled up all their food at the start of the day and didn't have any left like you did. What would you have done when the disciples came around asking for food? Would you have shared? After all you had planned and had been conscientious with your food and they weren't. They deserved to go hungry.

The boy could have hid the food and pretended that he didn't have any and ate in secret. He could have ignored the disciples' plea, reasoning to himself that he was in the right, but he didn't. No, he had faith in Jesus. He had faith that Jesus would put his food to good use and that he will not go hungry. He had more faith than the disciples had that followed Jesus every day. They didn't think that Jesus would be able to provide like this little boy did.  And even worse it would seem that they also didn't have the compassion on the crowd like the boy did. He was prepared to share what he had with all these people. He didn't want to see them grow faint from hunger.

He is a hero in my eyes. As I said before we don't know who he was, but this miracle is mentioned in all four gospels indicating its significance. We can learn a lot from him. We can learn to share what we have, and look to Jesus with mountain moving faith that He will provide all we need whilst providing in the needs of others as well.

Lord Jesus, help us to have mountain moving faith like this boy did. Help us to look up to You and believe that You will look after us, even as we share what we have. In Jesus' Name. Amen