“He was putting him to the test.”

“He was putting him to the test.”

 

Just before feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, “Jesus said to Philip, Whence are we to buy bread for these folk to eat?

  6 In saying this, he was putting him to the test; he himself knew well enough what he meant to do.” (John. 6:5,6)

Jesus wanted to feed all the people who were listening to His words Himself.

 Before doing it He wanted to test the faith of His Apostles.

He asked Philip from where they could get enough of bread to feed all the people.

 He expected an answer based on his faith.

Philip was His disciple and he was with Jesus when He turned water into wine at Cana to feed the people who had come for a marriage which Jesus attended with His mother and disciples.

 “Two days afterwards, there was a wedding-feast at Cana, in Galilee; and Jesus’ mother was there. 2 Jesus himself, and his disciples, had also been invited to the wedding.”(John. 2:1,2)

This miracle at Cana made His disciple believe in Him.

“ So, in Cana of Galilee, Jesus began his miracles, and made known the glory that was his, so that his disciples learned to believe in him.”

If Philip’s faith in Jesus had been real and strong, he should have answered, ‘You are God.

You can feed them Yourself without buying bread.’

 But did he give this answer? 

No.

Even Satan knew that God can change even stone into bread.

“If thou art the Son of God, bid this stone turn into a loaf of bread.” 

He knew that God had turned earth into man.

Instead of giving the expected answer, ‘Philip answered him, Two hundred silver pieces would not buy enough bread for them.’

So Philip failed in the test.

We are also Philips in this respect.

God tests our faith in a number of ways.

When we meet with problems in our life we should surrender ourselves before God in a strong belief that He will solve them.

We should not resort to solutions contrary to the will of God.

 Our problems are God’s test paper for us.

We cannot solve them ourselves.

Only God can solve them.

We should give Him a free hand.

 By solving them He will make us win the test.

I had a friend. (To put his name here I should first get his permission. But I have no time for that.)

He was very pious and strong in faith.

His parents compelled him to marry his sister’s daughter. But as it was against church rules he refused.

But his parents continued to compel him.

 To solve the problem he put his faith in God and escaped from his parents and went to one Rev. Father and served under him for a few years.

With the salary received from him he underwent teacher’s training and got appointment as a teacher in a R.C School.

As a teacher he married a teacher and settled well in life. God blessed him with a happy and prosperous life for not breaking a church rule.

His faith in God solved his life-problem.

Can worry solve a problem?

 No.

Then why should we worry?

But trust in God can solve all the problems in our life.

When we suffer in life we must remember how Jesus suffered for us.

His sufferings brought us salvation.

 We must offer our sufferings too for our salvation.

Our sufferings are only a test to our faith.

 If we offer them to God together with the sufferings of His Son Jesus, we win the test.

We will be rewarded with eternal life in union with God.

Lourdu Selvam.