Daily Scripture Assignment: Num 28-29; Mk 8

Cathy StonecipherScripture – “Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember, . . . ?” - Mark 8:18 (NAS)

Observation – Jesus is quoting the prophet Jeremiah, in chapter 5, verse 21, which He also quoted in Mark 4:12 when He was telling the disciples that they were being given the privilege of being taught the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Jesus often told parables, or stories with morals to them, to the masses following Him, and then He explained the true meanings to the disciples when they had gotten away from the crowds. Most of the people in the crowds wanted to be fed with the physical food Jesus provided to them, but they did not value the spiritual food He was sharing.

In chapter 6 of Mark, Jesus fed 5,000 men plus women and children with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. In Mark 8, Jesus fed 4,000 men plus women and children with 7 loaves and a few small fish. So, Jesus sounds somewhat surprised when the disciples are worried about the fact that they only had 1 loaf of bread to share between just 13 of them. The disciples still weren’t getting it.

Application – Someone once said, “Lack of faith is a lack of memory.” God has done so many great things for us, but sometimes we forget. The next crisis comes along, and we panic. A few years ago, during a particularly difficult financial time, I started a scrapbook to keep track of God’s faithfulness to us. In it I put receipts from grocery and clothing gift cards we were given, a Les Schwab receipt that indicated our tires were free because they still had the warranty from the previous car owner’s purchase, and notes from people who had sent us money for side jobs we did for them. Even just the act of watching for things to put in this scrapbook was encouraging and caused my faith to have to be more active. I began to expect to see God work miracles in our lives.

What we expect is often what we get. Pastor Steve told a story this Sunday morning about a man requesting prayer for his young granddaughter with the complete expectation that the prayer would be answered. The girl was healed.

When I was little, I was so afraid of bees that during family barbecues I would spend most of the time watching for a bee to come buzzing by me, and I would panic and run, repeatedly, until eventually I would have to go back in the house. If I would have ignored it, it would have ignored me, or so I was told. Unfortunately though, in this case, I found what I was looking for. That happens often. If I am at work and expect to have a really stressful day, I probably will.

On the other hand, if I expect to see God take care of me and expect to hear Him speak to me, that is what I will find happening.

Prayer – Father, thank you for Your faithfulness to me. When I am not so faithful, You always are. Thank You so much for Your presence, for sending Your Holy Spirit to be with us. Help me to remember to expect to see Your faithfulness to me. I love You.