There are many times in life when I find myself facing a circumstance that looks overwhelming or out of control. Times when I come before Jesus and say, “Here it is, I can’t do this.”
Maybe you are in a season of life where you are completely overwhelmed with all that you have going on. There is the season of raising a young family, demands at work, ministry, caretaking for aging parents, and the list goes on. I believe that when we are at the place where we feel we have nothing to offer and nothing left to give, this is the place where God wants to use us the most. You may say, Hold on! Are you meaning I should live in a state of burnout so that God can use me? Of course not! Let’s look at how Jesus taught His disciples to handle ministry at a time when they were weary and emotionally drained.
Recently, I shared a message titled “You Give Them Something to Eat” out of Mark 6:30-44. In this passage, Jesus feeds 5,000 men, plus all the women and children. Contextually, this miracle comes directly on the heels of a season of exhaustion for Jesus’ disciples.
They had just returned from their short-term mission trip, where they had been sent out in pairs. They saw the beautiful side of ministry where healing and restoration happened before their eyes, while also facing the sting of rejection as people scorned their message and the “Christ” whom they represented.
Who is Jesus asking you to feed or minister to in this stage of your life?
To add to their already depleted state, their return was greeted with the news of John the Baptist’s execution. The disciples were physically tired and emotionally drained. Jesus saw this and had compassion on them.
He said to them in Mark 6:31, “ ’Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat” (ESV). This sounds wonderful. Time to rest. Time to grieve the death of John the Baptist.
Instead, the people guessed where they were going and arrived there ahead of them. Human logic would likely say this is where we need to draw a boundary and turn them away until we can take time to have proper self-care. What did Jesus do?
Jesus saw them and had compassion because they were like “sheep without a shepherd.” In the parallel account in Luke 9:11, it says Jesus “welcomed” them.
As the day grew late, the disciples came to Jesus and requested that he send the people away to get food and go home. They were beyond exhausted. What did Jesus say? “You give them something to eat.” This was an impossible task that Jesus was asking the disciples to complete.
In the account in John 6, it states that Jesus asked Philip to test him. His initial response was to count the cost and concluded that it was impossible to feed this many people. Is this not our typical response? We immediately look at the “cost” of something God wants us to do. From our human perspective, it looks impossible.
Do you think Jesus needed the five loaves and two fish to feed the people? Of course not. He wanted the disciples to bring what they had to offer.
Maybe he wants us to bring what we have to offer so we can see how woefully inadequate we are without His provision. Who is Jesus asking you to feed or minister to in this stage of your life? Is Jesus saying to you, “You give them something to eat?”
Jesus knew there was no way possible for the disciples in their own strength to feed this huge crowd of people, yet he told them to give them something to eat. I think this is exactly where Jesus wanted them to be, and where He wants us to be: completely dependent on Him.
Photo credit: AI-generated
