lack of faith

Matthew 15:32 Then Jesus called his disciples and told them, "I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. I don't want to send them away hungry, or they will faint along the way."

  33 The disciples replied, "Where would we get enough food here in the wilderness for such a huge crowd?"

  34 Jesus asked, "How much bread do you have?"
  They replied, "Seven loaves, and a few small fish."

  35 So Jesus told all the people to sit down on the ground. 36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, thanked God for them, and broke them into pieces. He gave them to the disciples, who distributed the food to the crowd.

  37 They all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. 38 There were 4,000 men who were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children. 39 Then Jesus sent the people home, and he got into a boat and crossed over to the region of Magadan.


Now, correct me if I'm wrote, but didn't Jesus, in a previous incident, feed 5000 men in chapter 14 of Matthew? (counting the women & children... probably closer to 10,000!)

And yet, the disciples said, "where we gonna get enough food?"

If you or I had been with Jesus when He fed the 1st crowd of 10,000, would you or I have asked that same question the disciples did? I hardly think so. We probably would have said something along the lines of, "Ok Jesus, here's 7 loaves & a few small fish. Do your thang!"

But, before we consign the disciples to the dung heap of faithlessness, let's look a little closer at ourselves.

Take me for example...

How many times had God come through for me?

How many times has He managed to pull off whatever I needed to have pulled off, with little to no help needed on my part?

Ok, now we're in Blairsville. No jobs, a blunted avenue for relationship building, savings slipping away rapidly.

I could have completely & utterly made a mistake in discerning God's leading in this move. (not an impossibility)

But if I haven't, wouldn't it stand to reason that if God had handled the situation before, oft times in miraculous proportions, wouldn't it be consistent with His identity that He would handle this one, too?

And yet, there's quite a bit of crazy thinking going on in the battlefield of my mind.

Maybe I have some sort of genetic connection with the disciples? An inherent & inherited lack of faith?

So, maybe we should cut the disciples some slack, then?