He sees the ONE

John 6:6 "When Jesus looked out and saw that a large crowd had arrived, he said to Phillip "Where can we buy bread to feed these people?" He said this to stretch Phillip's faith. He already knew what he was going to do"

The story that follows is a famous story in the bible. A boy brings forward 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, which Jesus then uses to feed thousands of people. And of course have leftovers, because everybody loves leftovers, even Jesus. But I only realised today as I read this in my bible…that Jesus wanted to stretch Phillip's faith. Later in John 6 it says that "the people realised that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done". Which is awesome…it probably lead to the salvation of most of that crowd! However, Jesus had seen Phillip. I have no idea what Phillip was going through. What was maybe playing on his heart and mind. But Jesus did. And for some reason, He wanted to do something that would stretch Phillip's faith.

We will all go through times where our faith is stretched. Sometimes its something simple or quick. Sometimes its something heartbreaking. Life threatening. A situation that just feels like it won't end and our faith is being stretched thin. No matter that we are going through…we have to remember that God already knows what He is going to do. Psalm 31:14-15 says "But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying "You are my God! My future is in your hands". Trusting that God knows exactly what the future holds for us is hard. Really hard. It's more that our minds can often comprehend. But He does, because the bible cannot lie. God started writing out the story of our lives the minute the thought of us popped into his mind. He smiled, and started writing out the poem of our life. He knew it would contain pain. Sadness. Scary times. Joy. Laughter. He knows every detail about us, including what's going on on the inside. No matter what our circumstances look like, God cares about our character. Who we are becoming on the inside. And He will use whatever He needs to to use to shape us into WHO He wants us to be. Before He takes us to WHERE he wants to take us. And give us all He wants to give us. Sometimes He will stretch us. Stretch our faith. But let us use these times to grow. To push deeper into Him. To let go of some of the junk that we have started to carry. Maybe we need to in order to step into what God has planned ahead. Because He has, you know, planned ahead. Nothing is a surprise to him. He authored every day. Every step. And I bet He can't wait to see the smile on our faces as we step into it…