"For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."
And they did so, and made them all sit down.
Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them."
Luke 9:14-17 (NKJV)
Not following directions is something that is fairly common with many people. Not in the sense that someone will not listen to reason, but very often people will ignore instructions on how to build or operate something that they have purchased, because they believe they already know how to do what needs to be done. While it is true that sometimes we can figure things out for ourselves, to be sure we successfully do what needs to be done, we should always follow directions.
In Luke 9, we read about the feeding of the 5,000, and we can see that Jesus took what was available, what the disciples had, and Jesus used that to meet the need and feed the people. We can see that Jesus cared about helping the people, and how the need was met with everyone not only eating but being filled. But there is something in the story that we may not recognize as one of the keys to a successful outcome; the disciples precisely followed the directions of Jesus.
When Jesus fed the 5,000, as we see in Luke 9, Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups of 50. But what if they thought they had a better idea and they said that groups of 25 or 30 are fine, would they have been successful? While there is no way to know for certain, and there are times the direction God gives us may seem unimportant, we do know that to be successful we need to follow the directions that God gives us through His Word and by the Holy Spirit. We need to listen to God and follow His directions to have success in whatever we do.
And they did so, and made them all sit down.
Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them."
Luke 9:14-17 (NKJV)
Not following directions is something that is fairly common with many people. Not in the sense that someone will not listen to reason, but very often people will ignore instructions on how to build or operate something that they have purchased, because they believe they already know how to do what needs to be done. While it is true that sometimes we can figure things out for ourselves, to be sure we successfully do what needs to be done, we should always follow directions.
In Luke 9, we read about the feeding of the 5,000, and we can see that Jesus took what was available, what the disciples had, and Jesus used that to meet the need and feed the people. We can see that Jesus cared about helping the people, and how the need was met with everyone not only eating but being filled. But there is something in the story that we may not recognize as one of the keys to a successful outcome; the disciples precisely followed the directions of Jesus.
When Jesus fed the 5,000, as we see in Luke 9, Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups of 50. But what if they thought they had a better idea and they said that groups of 25 or 30 are fine, would they have been successful? While there is no way to know for certain, and there are times the direction God gives us may seem unimportant, we do know that to be successful we need to follow the directions that God gives us through His Word and by the Holy Spirit. We need to listen to God and follow His directions to have success in whatever we do.