#DailyDevotion Look To Jesus To Solve All Your Problems Today
John 6:1–15 Some time later Jesus crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd was following Him because they saw the miracles He did on the sick. 3Jesus went up the hill and sat down there with His disciples. 4The Jewish Festival of the Passover was near. 5As Jesus looked up, He saw a large crowd coming to Him. He turned to Philip: “Where should we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He asked this only to test him, since He knew what He was going to do. 7“Two hundred denarii,” Philip answered, “wouldn’t buy enough bread for each of them to get just a little.”
In the previous chapter of John there was some unnamed Jewish festival. Now we are approaching the festival of Passover. You might remember in Exodus, after the Passover the Israelites went into the wilderness and there they were fed by God with quail and manna. Now Jesus and the crowds are in the wilderness. A great crowd had followed him because they saw him do the miracles of healing the sick. I don’t know if they were following him because they had a spark of faith in him from the miracles or they were just wanting to be entertained. Maybe there was some of both. In either case, Jesus still felt for them. There wasn’t any place for them to go and get food at this time.
Jesus then ask Philip, “Where should we buy bread for these people to eat?” John says Jesus asked this to test Philip, because he already knew what he was going to do. I’m not exactly sure what exactly Jesus was testing Philip for. What he testing him to see if he knew what it would take to feed this crowd? Was he testing him to see if he would try to feed them all? Was he testing Philip to see if Philip would turn to Jesus to solve this problem? I’m thinking it is the last that is probably correct.
You might remember Jesus’ first sign in which his disciples believed in him was when Jesus turned the water into wine. There he miraculously made more wine, and the best wine, than was needed for the feast from the water in the large pictures. His second sign was healing the official’s son in Capernaum. Jesus of course had done many other miracles but these two were set apart by John as signs as to who Jesus is. Perhaps all the healings were included in the second sign. Now if Jesus can do these two things, then Jesus can take care of this particular problem.
Now who do you turn to or what do you turn to to solve all your problems today? Who do you turn to for every good? Jesus perhaps is not, by our terms miraculously, going to solve your problems. That does not mean he is not going to provide the solution for all your problems. Whether we need wisdom in a particular problem or material goods or anything else, every good thing comes from the Father of lights to us through Jesus. Sometimes he just provides us the strength to get through our problems. Every problem in our lives is like what Jesus does to Philip. He already knows what he is going to do. He wants to see if you are going to trust him or not in this situation. So before anything else, turn to Christ Jesus in prayer. Ask him for whatever help you think you need and he will provide the solution that you need. It may not be what you think you need but in the end, it will the solution that you need.
Heavenly Father, give us faith in Jesus so that when problems occur in our lives we may turn to him first and receive from you, through him the solution to all our problems today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.