1710 It’s Never Enough

BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women

You’ve been working the numbers in your head and the numbers tell you don’t get your hopes up. You’ve been doing the math and the math has been discouraging. There’s no way this is going to be possible for you. There’s no way there’s enough. There’s no way it will all come together.

That’s just the reality.

But my sister, there is far more at work here than what you see. Reality is what you see. What you cannot see is the power at work in the spiritual realms, and that power is not limited by reality. Your life is much like the iceberg. What you see is just the tip. There’s a mass connected to this in the unseen.

What’s in the unseen for you is God at work in the details. What’s in the unseen for you is a divine plan coming together regardless of circumstances.

However, your faith is required to experience the unseen. Your partnership has been requested in the working of this plan. Now my sister, don’t let the math get in your way and discourage you in the process.

GOD MATH. It’s the way God takes what could never be enough and makes it more than enough. It’s the way God reworks the numbers in miraculous ways to create an abundance. You want some God math in your life! This is your answer! I know you’re dealing with too little too late, but that’s just a primed situation for God math. But, here’s the key … he’s not going to do it without you.

Maybe you’ve been praying and you’ve been waiting for God to do something miraculous here, but what if God’s been waiting for you. God is unlimited in his power and ability. This isn’t a case of God can’t, maybe this is more a case of you won’t.

Look at the miracles of Jesus and see how he works. There’s a pattern to his miracles. Time and time again, he invites us to be his partners in the process. He could do it without us, but he doesn’t. He gives us a job to do. He gives us a role to play.

Matthew 14: 15-21, Jesus is surrounded by a massive crowd of people who had come to a very remote area to see him. They had been there all day and the people had grown hungry. The disciples say to Jesus, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the village and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary – you feed them.” “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!”

This is where reality hits. The reality is there’s nowhere near enough to feed this massive crowd of people. It was absolutely ridiculous to assume somehow they could or even should feed everyone. Feeding a crowd like this would have taken about 8 months wages. 8 months from 1 person for 1 meal for everyone. That’s ridiculous.

Now, lets look at the sheer amount of food required to feed this crowd. Later we find out the crowd was 5,000 men in addition to all the women and children. Let’s just assume for every man there is 1 woman and 1 child, that’s 15,000 people. Assuming each person would eat 1/3 of a loaf of bread for their meal, this would require 5,000 loaves of bread. Do you know how much bread that is? That’s more than a massive semi truck can hold.

This is the need. The supply is just 5 loaves of bread. That’s 1/1,000. That’s .001% of what was needed.

You likely know the end of the story. The end of the story tells us all the people ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers. But how do you go from only .001% of what was needed to 12 baskets of leftovers after 15,000 people have eaten?

Here’s how (and this is what you need to know today) ….

Verse 18-19, Jesus said, “Bring them here.” (He’s referring to the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish they have. This .001% of what was actually needed.). Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the 5 loaves and 2 fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people.”

That’s your answer. Now, it doesn’t feel like your answer, but it is.

Your answer is to stop letting the numbers distract you and do what Jesus says! You don’t have to understand this, you just have to be willing to take the next step.

Imagine being a disciple here for just a moment. You know the numbers. You know what you have is an embarrassing minimum that’s nowhere close to being enough to feed everyone. You know it, but the crowd doesn’t know it. You’ve done the math and the math isn’t mathing. And just then, Jesus tells the crowd to sit down. He’s preparing them to receive.

Right about now is when I start to panic. I have a habit of buying too much and cooking too much. I never want to come up lacking. If someone is counting on me for a meal, I want them to have more than enough. Now, stop right there … don’t you think Jesus cares even more than we do about his people? Don’t you think he too wants there to be more than enough? YES – he’s proven that! That’s why there were left overs. The only problem here is we don’t know what Jesus knows. We look at the numbers and we see .001% of what is needed. We see reality. We see the tip of the iceberg. Remember, there is sooooo much more at work here.

Jesus didn’t ask his disciples to understand what he was going to do, he simply asked them to participate in the process. They had 2 jobs: Bring what little they had to Jesus, then distribute it once Jesus had blessed and broken it.

There was no need for the disciples involvement. Jesus could have done it without them, but he graciously invited them to participate in the process so they could see God math. They would need this God math in the future. God math that said Jesus had no breath left in him, yet he would rise and return again to give us life. God math that said they could do nothing without God, but with him, they would do even greater things than they had seen Jesus do. God math that said even though you have failed, you have been chosen.

In John 2: 1-10, we see that Jesus has gone to a wedding celebration and the groom’s family had made a terrible mistake in their calculations. They had not purchased enough wine. Running out of wine at a wedding was a true disgrace and they would be filled with shame. But someone had invited Jesus to that wedding, and let me tell you, when you invite Jesus to come, everything changes!

Jesus is there with his mother Mary, and when she finds out of the disgrace the groom’s family would face because the wine has run out, she gets Jesus involved. And she knows the key to God math. Here it is, verse 5, Mary tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Next, Jesus gives seemingly ridiculous instructions to start gathering water. There are no grapes, just water. You don’t make wine from water. You make wine from grapes. You take those grapes and you let them ferment with time. A long time. But Jesus doesn’t require the correct ingredients. Nor does Jesus require a long time. Jesus requires one thing: WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU TO DO.

After Jesus’ mother tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you,” Jesus gives instructions. Standing nearby were 5 stone water jars. Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first, but you have kept the best until now!”

Just as he told the disciples to participate in the process of the feeding of the crowd, he tells the servants to participate in the process of turning water into wine. And now, Jesus is telling you, if you want to see his miraculous works here, stop worrying about the numbers!

Your reality tells you there isn’t enough time, there isn’t enough money, there isn’t enough support. Reality says you will never be enough and this will never be enough. But Jesus says, “If you do whatever I tell you, there will be an overflow here.”

The wine Jesus made was the best and finest wine. It was better than money could have bought. The bread Jesus multiplied was far more than enough. There was so much there were more leftovers than there was food to begin with.

That’s God math.

This is about you doing in faith whatever God tells you to do next. This is about you showing up where you are, doing what you can, and trusting God to do all you can’t do. My sister, you don’t have to understand it to be obedient.

What really blows me away is God could do it without us. He didn’t really need the disciples to bring him those 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. He didn’t really need them to distribute the broken pieces. Think about it. This is Jesus … he could have miraculously just made every stomach there full. He could have had this whole thing catered in advance. But he didn’t. Instead, he graciously shared in the miracle first hand with his disciples. He said, “Come and be part of the impossible with me. I want you to see this for yourself!”

And he did the same at the wedding. He could have had a secret stash of wine he had brought in. He could have had a wine salesman come wheeling through the village at just that time. He could have brought wine with him as a gift. But instead, he invites servants to be part of the miraculous process with him.

And now he says to you … you with the too little too late … you with the numbers that simply will not ever work … you with what never seems to be enough … you with a reality of lack and shortcomings … he says to you, “come and be part of the impossible with me. I want you to see this for yourself!”

Now, my sister, all you have to do is do whatever simple, seemingly unimportant thing he tells you to do next. For the disciples, it was to gather the tiny bit of food and start handing it out. For the servants, it was to fill these stone jars with water. And for you, it may be to show up today with a good attitude. It may be to put in extra effort with the best you can do. It may be to boldly ask again where the answer was previously no. It may be to take that next step of obedience and do the thing he has already been telling you to do. It may be to stop doing what he’s told you to stop doing. It may be to surrender this to him and lay it down.

Jesus is asking you to do something. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is. It’s your obedient next step to be a participant in his miraculous process. This is how your .001% becomes more than enough. This is how what is too far gone and far too late, happens now. This is God math.

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