“30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to Him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they went away in the boat by themselves to a remote place, 33 but many saw them leaving and recognized them. People ran there by land from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 So as He stepped ashore, He saw a huge crowd and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Then He began to teach them many things.”
Mark 6:30-34
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We are not machines. We have to take time to rest, recharge. Our emotional, physical and spiritual health matters, and probably more than we will often give it credit. After this experience of being sent out into the surrounding towns and villages on their own, Jesus wanted to give the disciples some time to recoup, to allow them to rest from their labors. But as is often the case, just as they were getting to the place they were going to rest, they were confronted with need, and more than they could have even guessed, and so rather than take that time for themselves, Jesus showed them that others come first.

We may find ourselves in a place like the disciples from time to time. We feel like we’ve poured ourselves out, and there’s not much left only to find that someone else has an involved situation where they need us to come in and speak truth, love and compassion. They need to be served, and we don’t feel like we have much left to give, if anything at all. The disciples felt ill-equipped to handle this situation, and Jesus showed them that this was the perfect time to learn how to lean on God’s provision in the midst of their own weakness.

When you and I feel like there’s nothing left, when we have no loves or fishes in our reserve, in our weakness…that’s when the strength of God is most apparent. You see, if we had something still left in our reserve, we might try to still do things by our own power. The disciples had been out walking all over the countryside, ministering, preaching, casting out demons, healing the sick. They walked back to meet Jesus and now they had just finished a long trip across the lake and were ready to have some provision given to them, some teaching and compassion and soul care from their Master. They were spent, and where they had been given the authority to do all these wonderful things just days before, they were faced with a very basic need. Nothing spectacular, nothing amazing, it was simply A LOT of a very basic need, and they didn’t have what it took to handle the situation, they needed to have Jesus take over.

It would have been easy for the disciples, or for you and I, to have an ego problem leading up until this point. We would have felt pretty powerful, and we could have felt pretty full of ourselves. And so a time of obvious weakness kept them from feeling like they were the ones with all the answers. It kept them reliant and focused on Jesus.

When we GoLove others in the Name of Jesus, we have to realize that we are not providing for them from our own reserves or our own strength. Everything we do in His Name is done under His authority and in His power.
Only then can people’s needs truly be met. Only in the power of Jesus Christ can we truly make an impact. When we realize our weakness, and trust in Him to see things done through us, that is when the real work begins.