Matthew 14:15 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." Today’s devotional verse is the beginning of the story where Jesus feeds the 5,000 men, plus women and children. But when you read this story, and this verse, does it sound familiar; maybe even like us? Think of it this way, the disciples are thinking, here is the problem we are having. The “the hour is already late.” And these people need to go get some food. And we do the same thing, we identify the problem. So what do they do? “His disciples came to Him” just like we bring our issue to the Lord, be it for ourselves, or like in this case, on behalf of others, which is a good thing. But then they tell Jesus what to do. “Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” Just like we do. “Lord, here is the problem, and here is how You need to fix it.” But think of this, what if Jesus did it their way? What if Jesus did tell everyone, “Okay everyone, you need to go home now because it’s getting late, and you need to go have dinner and get some rest.” I mean, if you think about it, it sounds right and is possibly the same solution we would bring to the Lord, because remember, this is over 5,000 people. I mean, how else would it be fixed other than our, or the disciples way? So if Jesus did it their way, then the 5,000 men, plus women and children would have never been blessed by God. Some may have been poor and would have gone away hungry. Also the disciples would never have seen faith in action. The bible tells us to bring our requests to the Lord. But it does not tell us to bring the solution as well, or to give God our advice on how “we” think He should take care of it or fix it. But if you think about it, Jesus did use the disciples and their offering as part of the solution, and for God to receive all the glory. Matthew 14:17 And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." Now the disciples are on the right track. We need to learn from this that all we need to do is bring what we have, even if it seems too little, not even enough to scratch the surface of what’s going on (5 loaves and 2 fish for 5,000+). But we should let God deal with the solution and He will. Because if we have the solution, why would we need God, we have fixed it ourselves (in our own mind). But we do need God to do what only God can do, in the way He wants to do it. Matthew 14:18 He said, "Bring them here to Me." That’s what the Lord said to the disciples, and what He says to us. Bring me what you got, and I’ll take it from here. And He did! I wonder how many more miracles we would see if we did that more? We won’t know until we start doing it. How many things would we see God’s hands in if we stopped giving God our advice. We won’t know until we stop doing it. Philemon 1:6 (NLT2) And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. Isaiah 40:13 (NLT2) Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?