FINDING NEW STRENGTH
How quickly we forget God’s great deliverances in our lives. How easily we take for granted the miracles he performed in our lives. Yet the Bible tells us over and over, “Remember your deliverances.”
We’re so like the disciples. They didn’t understand Christ’s miracles when he supernaturally fed thousands with just a few loaves and fishes. Jesus performed this miracle twice, feeding 5000 people one time and 4000 the next. A few days later, the disciples had dropped these events from memory.
It happened when Jesus warned them about the leaven of the Pharisees. The disciples thought he said this because they’d forgotten to bring bread for their journey. But Christ answered them, “Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?” (Matthew 16:9-10).
According to Mark, Christ was overwhelmed by how quickly his disciples had forgotten. Jesus said, “Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? And having ears, hear ye not? And do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?” (Mark 8:17-19).
What do these passages tell us? It’s clear that none of the disciples stopped to consider what was happening as those miraculous feedings took place. Try to picture these men walking among the crowds carrying their baskets, passing out loaves and fishes that multiplied miraculously before their eyes. You’d think those disciples would have fallen on their knees crying, “How is this possible? It’s simply awesome. It’s totally beyond human explanation. Oh, Jesus, you truly are Lord.” I imagine them urging the people they served, “Here, feast on miracle food, sent from glory. Jesus has provided it.”
The disciples saw these miracles with their own eyes yet, somehow, the significance didn’t register with them. They didn’t understand the miracles and likewise, you and I forget God’s miracles in our lives. Yesterday’s deliverances are quickly forgotten amid the crises of today.
Throughout both Testaments, we read, “Remember the powerful arm of the Lord, to perform miracles on your behalf. Remember all your past deliverances.” Consider Moses’ exhortation to Israel after the miracle of the Red Sea: “Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place…” (Exodus 13:3).