Giving Thanks in Advance

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people.” Luke 9:16 NIV

Evidently Jesus always thanked God for his food. He thanked God for these small amounts of food just before the miracle of multiplication took place. What did Jesus do that we would not have done? He looked up to heaven and saw something in the spirit that indicated what he was supposed to do to meet that need. He saw God feeding the thousands of people with the small amount of food.

Jesus had a precedence. God fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with something not natural, but supernatural—manna. The word ‘manna’ means ‘What is it?’ It was something that they had never seen, something that didn’t come from this earth.

God also fed the little woman of Zarephath in I Kings 17. In this case, he used the prophet Elijah to instruct her so God could multiply what she did have to last to feed her, her son, and Elijah until the drought was over.

So knowing the nature of God, Jesus just thanked God in advance for doing it. If God did it once, He will do it again. If God had ever fed people supernaturally He could and would do it again.

Can you find the answer to your problem in the Bible? Are you short on cash for example? Jesus told the disciples to open the fish’s mouth and find money. If God did that once, He will do it again, maybe not in a fish’s mouth, but somehow somewhere God will get the money to you.

Are you racked in pain and need a miracle just to live? If God did it once, He will do it again. Jesus touched the withered hand and it became like new. He touched blinded eyes, opened deaf ears.

Let’s thank God in advance for what He is going to do.