Two Fishes: How To Use Small Faith To Obtain Big Results
God only needs what we have to do miracles
God says,
” And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me.”
Matthew 14:14-18
All we have are two fishes
What I really need in my life is for God to help me solve problems that seem beyond my ability. Therefore, I have been asking Jesus to teach me about faith. For it is written,
“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”
Matthew 11:23
Know what you want
Today, I fixed dinner as I looked at my cutting board. It is a very nice, heavy wood block board and works well for cutting up meat and vegetables. I decided, a while ago, that Cooking Asian food on a nice surface like others used would be helpful. However, the board I wanted cost $90 dollars and I didn’t want to spend that much on a cutting board. However, I kept looking at them online and thinking about how nice it would be to have a big solid butcher block for my kitchen.
A few weeks later, as I visited garage sales one day, guess what I found? I ran across the exact butcher block I desired. Asking the person the seller the price he said “five bucks.” I said, “I’ll take it.”
Be specific
Another time we needed to buy a car. My wife said, “I want a used 1999 Saturn SL1, with low miles and Plum color. We didn’t have the money on hand so we decided to sell our travel trailer to raise cash. Putting an ad in the paper where we lived produced no serious takers. Then we thought, well, let’s take it up to Seattle Washington and perhaps it will sell better there.
Do your best with what you have
First, we cleaned the trailer from top to bottom, hooked it up to our Chevy Suburban, and made the 1200 mile trip to Seattle where my parents live. Secondly, upon arriving, we put an ad in the classifieds for 6500 dollars. We received our first call from someone who was interested in the trailer the very next day. As they viewed our trailer, the man and his wife exclaimed, ” wow, this trailer hasn’t even been lived in!” Actually, we have lived in it for 7 years, but kept it well and clean it thoroughly.
When you ask specifically God answers specifically
The buyers said, “we’ll take it!” and paid the full price in cash. The next day we called a Saturn dealership asking them if they had any used SL1’s for sale. The salesman told us that someone traded in a used SL1 just that morning. We drove up to Everett in our Suburban. My wife and I looked at the car and sure enough, it was a 1999 SL1 with only 48,000 miles and, you guessed it, plumb colored! Just that morning a teacher at a local school traded in the specific car we wanted. The $6500 cash we received the day before bought the car, paid the sales tax and title transfer, plus I had enough left over to sent $400 dollars to Africa.
God says,
“Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
Psalms 34:7
Putting it all together
I am beginning to think that when you want our Father to do something, first of all, it should be specific. It should be something we really want to have happen. Secondly, and this is the important part to me, we need to give what we have no matter how small it may be. If you only have two fishes God will work with that.
It is the small steps of faith we take towards what we ask for which moves the hand of God. That small step may be looking for what we want, trying to do something that seems impossible, or just stepping out in some way towards our goal. Moreover, I know that if I see one of my small children trying to lift something too heavy for them, I automatically lend my strength to help them lift it. How much more will our heavenly Father help us when we try to do what is impossible by faith?
We all have real needs in God
In conclusion, I know I need to learn how to move mountains. I have the equivalent of two fishes and five thousand to feed. Nothing I am currently doing is possible without God’s divine intervention. If I continue to try to live a supernatural life through natural means I will fail miserably. Therefore, I want to know the specifics on how to triumph over any obstacle with what little faith I possess. I invite you to share your insights about how God deals with you and your faith walk too!
God bless,
Michael