God sees your need for provision rather than your need for money

When the disciples were confronted with the need of feeding 5,000 men and their families, they were in despair, as they saw the physical need for food in terms of money rather than provision. But God can only give from what He has created and what He can create. And it was man not God that invented money. Fortunately, He created the whole universe!

The Gospel of Mark accounts,

'Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.

But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him. And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”

But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.”

And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?”

But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”

Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. So they all ate and were filled. And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.' (Mark 6:30-44)

The disciples panicked because they saw the price of food they would have to buy, and they had no money. They looked to money for answers. Many of us have used the phrase: “Show me the money!” from the film Jerry Maquire. What it means is that we are asking for reality behind things.

But money isn’t the ultimate reality behind things. The ultimate reality behind things is spiritual.  Jesus looked to the Father who created the universe out of nothingness for answers.

I believe that Jesus asked the disciples to feed the multitudes because He wanted to teach them a lesson. They still thought that it was money that made the world go round. But in fact, it is God who makes the world go round.

We must learn that although money is an important part of man’s kingdom, and God also uses money, it still isn’t part of God’s Kingdom.

God wants to meet our need, and often He does that through helping us to make money, or even send someone our way to give us money, but He never wants us to become reliant on money for our provision.

No, God is our provider, and when we need to feed 5,000, we need to look to Him! You might not have a penny in your pocket, but you serve a God who owns the whole universe!

So, instead of looking at how much money you have in your pocket, look at the provision God keeps on giving you. Sometimes it comes through God providing financially; at other times God meets your need directly.

It is important to remember that money belongs to man’s kingdom, and it can be used by God or the devil. It is not God’s creation, hence chasing money will never lead you to God’s Kingdom, as money isn’t part of it.