What do you do when God challenges your faith? In John 6 Jesus asked His disciples to trust Him in a manner that He had never asked before. With very little food and nowhere to buy more Jesus told His disciples to tell the crowd of at least 5,000 followers to sit down and prepare to be fed. They were fully aware that all that Jesus had was 5 loaves of bread and two fish, they were also fully aware that there was no bread that had been ordered or was on it’s way from somewhere else. They were being put in a position to trust Jesus more than ever before. After they seated the 5,000 plus person crowd Jesus gave thanks for the 5 loaves of bread and told the Apostles to feed the crowd with it. I don’t believe that this multiplication happened in an instant, I believe that it happened as the disciples walked in faith, with each portion they gave another appeared, they had to trust Jesus enough to go into the situation with less than they needed and believe that He would provide.
We all face similar situations, times in which God pushes us into situations that we feel completely helpless and even hopless in. Those are not times to find new strength, they are not times to think of a way to help God and they are not times to get offended or hurt and stop following. These are times to see our faith grow, our hope grow and God’s presence in our lives grow. Rodney Whitacre wrote, “God knows the condition of our hearts and sends circumstances that will reveal our hearts to us.” These times of testing and challenge are not so that God can see what we are made of, they are times for us to see our hearts and then to watch God build our faith through our obedience and His presence.
If you are being challenged today, please understand that God is not trying to shake you away, He is trying to shake you nearer to Him than ever before. You can trust Him and He will provide, but He desires more obedience than ever before so that you can see more of His glory that you ever asked or imagined.