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Most stories in life don’t really begin at their beginning—at least, not at what we might identify as the beginning. To begin before the beginning of the storm story, we must witness the miracle that preceded the tempest. 

In Matthew 14, Jesus had just received the news that His cousin, John, had been murdered. He needed a place of solitude to process the human pain of loss and grieve the life of His dear friend and ministry coworker. But He could not get away by Himself even in this time of tragedy. The crowds were able to sniff Him out and discover the location of His quiet place. 

“The disciples came to [Jesus] and said, ‘This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’” 

The disciples were focused on their lack—what they did not have—rather than on who was with them! They were fact-oriented, but Jesus always calls His disciples out of the temporal facts of a situation and into a place of faith in His power to demonstrate eternal realities. The disciples were consumed by their circumstances, while Jesus was consumed by the Father’s compassion for the multitudes who had come to listen to, and receive from, His life- giving words. 

The disciples had chosen to walk by sight; but Jesus, walking by faith, saw what they had missed—He saw the makings of a miracle. You can choose whether to walk by faith or by sight regardless of the threatening storm that looms on the horizon of your life. You can choose faith or you can choose to panic; you can choose to trust the Father to protect you or you can choose to spout negativity. You choose. 

The disciples were able to produce “only five loaves and two fish,” which a young “lad” in the crowd had brought with him. However, the word only is not in Jesus’s vocabulary. 

You will never partner with Jesus in a miracle if you see only what is in your hands. You must set your gaze on heaven’s power and remind yourself that there is a God who does, indeed, intervene in the affairs of human beings. There is a God who is more than enough in any of your life situations. There is a God!