Chapter 14

         First, lets talk about the one thing that was mentioned twice in this chapter- alone time.  Verse 13 says, "...he withdrew from there...to a desolate place by himself." And in verse 23, "...he went up on the mountain by himself to pray...he was there alone." Why do you think Jesus isolated himself?  Well we learn that he got himself alone in verse 13 after he heard of John the Baptist's death.  Jesus probably wanted time to mourn his friend's death.  His mind was probably buzzing after teaching so many people for such a long stretch.  He was a busy man.  Although I'm sure our busyness cannot even come close to how much Jesus was demanded of, there is a lesson to learn from Him.  We need alone time.  Not just to quiet our minds, having no distractions, but also to pray (verse 23).  I'm not sharing with you my example for you to copy how I get alone time, but with two young kids, I try to have my alone time before they get up in the morning- and they get up anywhere from 5:30-6:30am.  So sometimes, if I haven't had a rough night with the kids getting up, I try to wake up at 4:30.  Yes crazy- but you should see how crazy I get if I don't have alone time with my Father!  You don't want to see me crazy!  Your quiet time alone might be at night before bed, on your lunch hour, or in the early mornings like me- but I encourage you to make it a priority.  If you live just a regular life- going to work, staying home with the kids, going to school- whatever it is, you have noise all around you.  You have voices speaking to you at different volumes in every minute of every hour.  When are minds are full of this noise that comes from the world, we need to get in a place of seclusion so that we can hear the One Voice that matters.  Time with your Father is crucial in keeping sanity in this chaotic world, rest in the busyness of life and staying on His path rather than following the loud voices booming from the world.                

            Second, let's talk about Jesus feeding five thousand men, not including women and children- with FIVE loaves of bread and TWO fish!  If we add the women and children into the equation, we are probably talking about 20,000 people!  We can picture a multitude of people who follow Jesus into a desolate place, and at the end of the day, instead of sending the people away, he chooses to feed them.  The only thing that seems to be a problem?  A young man from the crowd only has 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, as we learn in the Gospel of John.  Hmmm. Now, if you do the math, you can't feed 5000 or 20,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.  But Jesus does something only He can do.  He looks up to heaven, and asks God to multiply what they have.  Not only did He feed all the people there, but there was also some left over!  How amazing was that?  Notice, also that before He asked God to do something divine, He had the disciples gather the people in groups of fifty.  I heard a preacher once mention this neat thought: that before God blessed and multiplied what they had, Jesus and the people got into a position of faith and action.  Instead of gathering in groups and sitting on the grass after the food was provided, they acted in faith- sat in groups, expecting God to show up and provide, and He did.  Even though the disciples may have not known what was going to happen, they obeyed and didn't ask questions when Jesus told them to prepare the people.  That in itself was an act of faith- they trusted that Jesus was going to do something.  What actions can we take in faith to expect God? God wants to provide for us.  He wants to mulitiply our faith, our love, our devotion to Him among other things.  How can you get into position of faith today?

On Matthew Chapter 14

• Leanne