Expect a Test
“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7).
No doubt Jesus could see there were a lot of hungry people in the massive crowd that had gathered to hear Him speak. It was lunch time, and they were still sitting there. So, He turned to Philip and said, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” (John 6:5).
Was Jesus really asking Philip for help, as if He didn’t know what to do? Clearly not. In fact, the next verse tells us, “He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do” (verse 6).
Philip basically said it would require a small fortune to feed all those people. There was no way they could do it. Then Andrew said, “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” (verse 9).
This was a test. Could they trust God? Jesus already had performed miracles. They knew what He was capable of. But could they trust Him to provide food for a lot of hungry people?
Apparently not because Andrew didn’t know what to do, and Philip didn’t know what to do. But Jesus multiplied those five barley loaves and two fish to feed 5,000 people, with twelve baskets of food left over (see verses 10–13).
We might say His disciples didn’t pass that test. Yet haven’t we been in times of testing as well? A big financial issue comes up, and we wonder how we’re going to pay that unexpected bill. We wonder how we’re going to make ends meet.
I can tell you that after walking with the Lord since the age of 17, God always has come through for me. And I believe that He will come through for you (see Philippians 4:19). But He will test us. God allows us to go through times of trial to make sure we are learning and growing.
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