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Snapshot

Sitting: “Make them sit down… v. 14”

Settlement

Firstly, to have sat in their fifties in anticipation of food, they settled their mind to eat whatever was provided. To their hungry soul, everything seemed food. Their hunger immediately deadened them to dainties, and they savoured whatever was provided. Luxury will be accessed right at home. But right here in the wilderness, Jesus will only give bread, and the only alternative to bread was death in the wilderness. If anyone fails to eat this bread, they will have no life to carry them home.

Jesus did not fail to declare that anyone who would not savour the “ordinary” bread that has no life in him. It is bread, not buttered, nor beef, does Jesus provide. So your desire for dainties must have done with if Jesus must do you any good. Will you be content with this daily bread without butter nor sandwiched with beef? All other men, who are wolves in sheep clothing, might entice you with different varieties of bread. They may garnish the bread whatever bait may lure your appetite. Yet, the word of the gospel of Jesus is simple: “I am the bread of life.”

Has your sinful life and endless wandering in an attempt at betterment wearied you out, and are you seeking a way out? Settle for Jesus; satisfaction comes from Him alone. All who savour other forms of bread will hunger again. They will need different forms of meals. But once this bread of life is indeed gotten, it becomes the only adequate food of the soul. The soul will never hunger for any other form of bread.

For the weak, the weary, burdened, and sorrowful, same bread, brother. For the sick, the selfish, the adulterous and the gossip, same bread, sister. Will you in faith believe that it was for you that bread – Jesus – was broken on the cross. So that if you eat, you believe your sin (external and non-conformity to Jesus), pointed the nail and fixed the thorn. It was you in His mind that caused Him to endure the bleed. How tasty shall you find this untradable precious bread! How greatly will you treasure it! Shall you not go and sell all other bread made for decoration, dispose of their yeasts, and possess this bread forever to eat? Are you willing to make God your all-in-all? Would you let Him take preeminence in anything and everything?

They were settled for all Jesus would make available, and in their settlement, they sat. Then sitting became the link between salvation and satisfaction.

Satisfaction: “So they all ate and were filled… v.17.”

The audience was filled. The fed-men might not have been filled if they had eaten in a rush. But they could gauge their hunger level and demand sufficient bread to end their hunger. Would you be satisfied with good things? Would you not pant after the husks cheaply served around in the name of prosperity and healing? So you need to eat and be filled.

In Him, all things consist. No satisfaction would be worth the test of time if not that, provided by this undiminishing bread of life. Fulfilment in career, family life, relational life, health and ministry? This bread holds for thorough pleasure. Not to avail oneself of this satisfaction is to set oneself up for hollowed emptiness. Oh, Jesus is dedicated to your dissatisfaction and condemnation should you not accept his offer! Don’t waste your resources on things that do not satisfy you. Do not settle for less. Would you settle for whom your soul so long has craved? Settle for the simple bread disseminated as His word, just as He did by the sea at Galilee.

Since you have been roaming with your so-called pastor, priest and prophets, have you come to that point of ecstasy where your soul shout in praise, having found Christ for its sufficiency? Are you satisfied with being regularly confused about the many gospels out there today and having been driven to and fro, like flags soon coming to the rags? Are you satisfied with all you have gotten from about Christ? Come to Jesus, come and buy without money and be satisfied?

Satisfaction for the served

Without being served by experienced hands in Christ, as a newborn in Christ, satisfaction cannot come. Skilful helping hands are needed by Christ to disburse food to you in due season. These capable hands know where you are seated. They can understand your sitting position and can almost, with precision, estimate the quantity of food needed for your guaranteed satisfaction in Christ Jesus. They have been hungry before, and the one which was sufficient for their provision is still very much available to attend to you through them. They know the proper proportions and their combinations.

They know the least oily content of anointing dripping from that fish mixed with the devotional guide that should ensure your footing. Those calls for discipleship. Jesus commanded His disciples to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. But the forgotten side was that Christ Jesus had first discipled the disciples. For many, we will be discipled by circumstances. Others by human hands. Whatever God is tilting your heart towards, be accountable to your disciplining authority.

Satisfaction for the serving

One plant and the other harvest that He who plants and harvest may rejoice together. We shall rejoice together with He who planted Himself as a corn of wheat when He sees the travail of His soul, and we shall be satisfied together. This is the satisfaction of serving after he has enjoyed the service of being served. Since we are saved to serve.

Satisfaction from serving comes from fruitfulness. Suppose we will take the message to the unheard and labour for their conviction of belief in Christ. In that case, their belief is a fulcrum for satisfaction. Here to, we can see the travail of our soul and rejoice in Him. is it not He who is fruitful that shall be pruned for increased fruitfulness? You might have sat down too long on the mount of transfiguration and, like Peter, might have built a tent there. Away to the valley, I bid you! There, your brethren are struggling with unbelief. The belief that once fled at their command now confronts them confidently unperturbed by their utterances. The sins your brethren had once had mastery over has come back as a crown captor to hold them captive. Men need your help down the hill of sin. Men need those who will fear no evil to come to help them out of the valley and shadow of death. Only the valley will reveal how much help you need as a Christian. At the top of the mountain, it is about Jesus. The bright light with which Jesus shines may becloud us from seeing our woes. We will see our woes and our need for help at the valley – this will call for pruning. That it may be fulfilled that which is written of us, “The soul that is liberal shall be made fat,” And in another, partially, “The branch that brings forth much fruit the Father prunes that it may bring forth many fruits:”

Be saved, sit to be served or served the sitting, forthwith shall come your satisfaction.