Tonight at Community Group, we watched an hour of The Gospel of John (it came out in 2003, so it is not old and cheesy). In college we did an assignment for our Gospels class where we watched several different movies about the gospels. Then after college, The Passion came out and I went to see that along with everybody else. However, after the first hour of The Gospel of John, I have to say that it is the best movie about Jesus that I have ever seen. We could actually sit with the book of John open and follow the lines word for word. I am looking forward to watching the rest of the movie.

The scene where Jesus fed the five thousand got me thinking about Re:Hope’s situation in Scotland. Their church has found themselves in a similar situation that Jesus and the disciples were in. Re:Hope is praying for God to do a miracle and provide them a place to worship God on a regular basis. They do not have enough money to meet the asking price of the seller, just like Jesus and the disciples did not have enough food to feed the five thousand people. I was struck in the story about how Jesus responded to his Father with the food he had…

…He gave thanks. The story does not say he asked God to provide enough to feed everybody. Instead it only says that he gave thanks for what was provided, and then his Father provided for more than what he needed. This is not to say that God does not want us to bring our requests to him in the manner that Re:Hope is doing (that principle is found in the story of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8). The point of this blog is simply this: to bring our requests to the Father while giving thanks for what God has already provided.

“Does this mean that God will provide for our needs if we are thankful for what he has provided?” No, that is not the right deduction. God is the one who ultimately makes the decision to provide or not. The thing to remember is that God is also ultimately good. Thus whether he chooses to provide or not, his decision will always remain within the pattern of his character to be good. He makes decisions, according to his will, for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28).

It is my prayer that God would provide for Re:Hope, and give them a place to worship God together. However, whether he provides or not, it is remains my prayer that the people of Re:Hope would also give thanks for what God has already provided (I think they are doing this, but I am writing this just as a reminder). Although Re:Hope is the example I use in this blog, this is also the prayer I have for myself: that I would be thankful for what God has provided, and when I bring my requests to God I want to remember to be thankful for what I already have…even if it’s not much.