John 6:5-9 -- On Thinking Past Limitations

"When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him,
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?"
John 6:5-9


The idea here that Christ asked Philip this question in order to prove him is interesting, and what popped into my mind as a comparison is the conversation that God had with the Brother of Jared about providing light and air for his barges. In that case God solved the air problem for him, but left the light problem open, only telling the Brother of Jared the things that wouldn't work... he left it to him to come up with something that would work.

Perhaps the conversation here was similar, Jesus posing a problem and drawing their attention to what wasn't going to work before he illustrated how to solve it, asking them (and us) to change their mindsets from just thinking about limitations to thinking about possibilities.

Today, let's experiment with this idea a little, in facing our current challenges. Instead of giving up on something good because it seems impossible, let's work through what we can do, and what God might be able to do. Let's stretch our minds a bit and include the possibility of miracles. As we consider that possibility in more and more situations, I think we will become capable of more, both in our capacity and our ability to work with God to reach beyond our capacity.