I am a woman who can talk a good talk, have all the right “Christian” things to say, but honestly when it comes to putting my words, my faith, into practice for myself, I struggle.

I suppose we all can be like that in some way, shape or form can’t we?

Even the disciples, the very men who walked WITH Jesus in the flesh, doubted.

During difficult times I have questioned God. Cried out to Him, blamed Him, begged Him for mercy and understanding at my plight.

But the answers don’t always come as I had expected…..

I have shared about our period of unemployment here before…it was just 2 short years ago and at the time I believed that God had deserted us. I mean weren’t we “doing all the right things”, and still here we found ourselves in the middle of a huge storm?!

A mortgage, car loans and student loan debt seemed a mountain we wouldn’t ever be able to climb….especially when we were both unemployed!

But my husband had a much stronger faith than I did….he was my rock. He believed God could do big things and so he stepped out in faith and started his own business.

He knew the dream was a big one, impossible maybe, but he stepped out in faith and started to do the work.

Dream chasing isn’t always glamorous (<==== Click to Tweet) ….have you found that to be true in your journey too?

It can take long hours and tough choices, hard work and determination….and sometimes we feel so inadequate the only thing we can do is pray.

Lord, take our time, our work, our hearts to serve you and multiply it….

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In Holley’s devotional she encourages us to read the story from Matthew 14: 13-21 about the fishes and the loaves, so we can see how God can multiply the impossible for us.

This again is a very familiar story but (and oh how I am loving this) God opened my eyes to see this in a fresh way this week.

v. 13 “When Jesus learned what had happened, He got on a boat and went away to spend some time in a private place.”

This first verse got me curious….what had Jesus just learned that He wanted to be in private?

So I backed up to V. 1 and see that the “backstory” to this is that John the Baptist has been captured and Herod’s stepdaughter has been granted “anything she wanted” for her birthday…and for some reason, what she wanted, was John’s head on a platter.

This prophet, a great man of God, a friend to Jesus…the one that baptized Jesus, has been beheaded and Jesus has just heard the news.

And He desires to be in private, but the crowds follow Him. And Jesus has compassion on them.

v. 14 “Though Jesus wanted solitude, when He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, and He healed the sick and the lame.”

The day goes on and the disciples come to Jesus basically asking Him to send the crowd away for dinner….but Jesus has a different idea.

V. 16 “They don’t need to go back to the villages in order to eat supper. Give them something to eat here.”

The disciples know they don’t have enough, only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.

Clearly not enough. Clearly.

And even though the disciples had just witnessed a full day of healing and miracles, they doubted?

Does that strike you like it does me?

So the disciples brought Jesus what they had….knowing it was lacking, it wasn’t enough.

And Jesus does the impossible, and we read that 5000 men (not including the women and children) were fed with 12 baskets left over.

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So often we come to Jesus completely lacking.

We have these dreams on our hearts, but the reality of success seems impossible. Our offering seems so small, what could God possibly do with us?

Yet I have seen, time and time again, where God has taken the little that we do have and multiply it in ways that cause us to just shake our heads in awe.

We are walking in a time like that, complete amazement at what God is doing with the business, this crazy, impossible dream, just shaking our heads in wonder of all that He has done.

There are days it overwhelms and the work seems daunting.

My prayer each morning is that God gives us just what we need for that day, enough stamina, strength, energy etc., to do our jobs well and to always have hearts of thanksgiving.

In all of your “I cant’s” this week remember that God CAN. He is enough.

And don’t be afraid to pray wild “fishes and loaves” prayers…..and if you do get ready to see God do some amazing things in your life!

Each Tuesday I join my God-sized Dream sisters and talk about all things dream chasing…join us won’t you?!

Photo Credit: hoyasmeg