Mark 8:16 - We have no bread!

8:16

We see here the slowness of the disciples. They thought Jesus was concerned about the fact that they had brought only one loaf of bread with them. By the way, this indicates that Mark had access to inside information, ie someone who was actually there, and this person is believed to have been Peter. We may think the disciples are so stupid, but if we are honest we are no better. We so often think that our daily needs are the most important thing in life, we will get obsessed about little things, or practical matters, when God is actually concerned about something very different. So how can we apply this practically? We all go through times when we are facing threats of some sort, whether it be health, finance, work, relational etc. There may even come a time when we face persecution of some sort. During those times our natural tendency is to focus on the threat. One of the most important things we can do in such situations is to focus on the things that we know God considers to be important. We should worship God, we should pray for others, we should help others, we should do good in all sorts of ways (witnessing, giving, etc). Our natural self will be screaming at us that we need to focus all our energy on the threat matter, but that is not true. That is not to say that we completely ignore the practicalities of life, but it is to say that we are to have a godly perspective. Indeed, the Lord’s prayer gives us a very good patter, seek first the kingdom of God.