Good morning. Welcome to this episode of Reflective Hour with Tammy Toney-Butler. I'm your host, but we all know who the host of this show is, and that's Christ.
May He guide you, keep you, and sustain you this day as you seek His Truth, His Love, His Strength, and His Mercy to get through another day, another day of tribulation, trial, and adversity.
Many of you face adversity, times of drought, famine, and wondering where your bread will come from, much like the disciples did in the Feeding of the 4 000.
Let's look at His Word for today's lesson and reflect on it.
The title of this episode is Can You Rejoice in a Season of Lack?
When you're faced with trials and tribulations, how do you respond?
Do you seek God?
Do you tether to His Word to sustain, deliver, and keep you?
Or do you tether into things of the world that are fleeting, which, if they're all taken away, how will you exist?
How will you comfort yourself? How will you get through the moment if you don't have those things?
Christ is the only thing that we can anchor to: His Glory. His Truth will sustain us no matter what we're facing.
He gives us joy in the middle of sorrow and strength in the middle of a very trying season.
Often, we are placed in the refiner's fire so that we can be purified like silver and gold, strengthened and fortified so that we have within us an inner strength that will carry us through.
No matter what we're facing,
an inner strength that we possess that we have access to, and that we only need to call out to God, and He will help us.
He will save us. He will protect us.
He knows what we need before we even ask. He knows what we need.
When we look at the Feeding of the 4 000, when we look at Mark 8, I'll be reading from the King James Version: We have rules, we have a road map, a compass, and know what to do.
We also have that when we look at Ephesians.
We read the book of Ephesians, dissect it, and pray it over our lives. every morning, knowing that it is the Truth.
There is a prayer in there that Paul prayed. It's powerful.
Please read it. Marinate in it. Start your morning with it.
I get up every morning between three and six a.m.
Every morning, I pray, get in His Word, and seek Him to draw enough strength and protection that His Word brings me to get through another day, another second, another minute because I choose joy.
I choose the Fruits of the Spirit.
I choose to live my life as Christ,
did, f
following Abba Father,
fully God, fully man,
but following the will of His Father and drawing strength from His Father, knowing that He has access to everything and we have access to everything, all the resources we need.
We only need to look at the work on the Cross to look to Jesus. And in Jesus, we see the Father, a loving Father who sent His Son to die so that we could live.
Mark 8
King James Version
8: In those days the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,
2: I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:
3: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far.
4: And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?
And the NIV version says, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?”
How many of you have been in a remote, dry place or a season of lack, wondering who would feed you and sustain you?
Did you look to the world for temporary comfort, or did you seek eternal, everlasting comfort?
5: And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.
6: And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.
The NIV version says, "When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so."
How many of you have been in that broken and dry remote place and given thanks with the little that you had, showing gratitude, not complaining, but being thankful, knowing that you would be fed, taken care of, and sustained with even just that little bit, even if we have that mustard seed of faith, that's all we need.
He will deliver you out of those circumstances.
Let's keep reading.
7: And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them.
8: So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.
9: And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.
10: And straightway he entered into a ship with his disciples, and came into the parts of Dalmanutha.
I think that's how you pronounce that, but I'm not sure.
How many of you can eat the Bread of Life, the love and compassion of Christ, and be satisfied with your spiritual food, the Fruits of the Spirit to feed and sustain you during times of famine and drought?
Fruit gives us life, sustains us, and helps us (nourishment).
Galatians 5:22-23
New International Version
22: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23: gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Let's keep reading in Mark 8, the King James Version.
11: And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
12: And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.
13: And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.
14: Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.
15: And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
16: And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
17: And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
Yeast symbolized evil.
A small amount of yeast is needed to make a batch of bread rise. The hard-heartedness of the religious and political leaders could permeate and contaminate. the entire society and make it rise up against Jesus (NIV Commentary, Life Application Study Bible NIV Version).
What does Jesus signify? The Truth.
A little contaminant, such as the refusal to repent, turn away from sin, or turn back towards God and the Truth, can destroy a whole loaf (society).
Every time you cooperate with sin, move the boundaries in your life or guard rails, then you risk contaminating. and destroying the entire loaf.
If your heart is too hard to turn back to God and turn away from sin, it is only a matter of time before you compromise with the world, and that destroys your spiritual compass, your compass of good versus evil, right versus wrong.
Take care that this does not happen to you.
Let's continue in Mark 8.
18: Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
19: When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
20: And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
21: And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?
having eyes See not, and having ears, hear ye not, and do you not remember?
Christ was broken so we could live.
So that we could have life, be sustained, be kept, strengthened,
have life,
and have the fullness of life, joy, and peace in the middle of anything that we're facing.
The disciples experienced many of Jesus's miracles but still had doubts. The disciples still did not fully see that He was God and Man.
He came to give Life and sustain us with Spiritual Food and Living Water that will never dry up,
as fully God and man. He had access to all the resources in heaven, and His Father knew what He needed before He asked.
God knows what we need and what we lack.
Sometimes, the dry places come to change our perspective, realizing that if we put God first, we will be satisfied and sustained in every situation.
Remember how He carried you through a past trial or tempting situation.
Call out to Him and trust He will deliver you now.
Walk by faith and not by sight, recognizing that He has you Tucked under His Wing, protected.
You can find and draw your strength from Him. It's the only way because things that we put in our life, that we make idols in our life, they can pass away.
I used to make men idols in my life. I had to have a boyfriend. I had to have a man in my life. a failed marriage later.
There were so many things that I had to endure because I was seeking love in all the wrong places.
I was looking for anything to sustain me, but it only brought me happiness and peace for a little bit.
And after I did the act, after I succumbed to the addiction,
I was worse than before. I felt such depression and sorrow, shame and guilt, it threatened to consume me.
And so what did I have to do?
I had to seek out more of the drug or another relationship,
temporary relief as I tried to cope, but nothing,
nothing sustained me.
Nothing brought me joy, peace, and love like Christ and knowing and flowing with the Holy Spirit in and out of me and through me into others.
Living by the Holy Spirit, living by faith, truly, truly living by faith.
The Word is alive, and It sustains me.
It is my food. I hunger and thirst for it, and that's where I draw my strength.
Not from a drug, not from a man, not from anything that can be taken from me.
The Lord spoke to me even when I got married a second time to my current husband. He's a police officer about to retire in just a few short months, and work with the ministry full-time, and help us.
I say work. None of us get paid.
There are no salaries, but we do God's work, love it, and bring love to folks, hope, peace, and joy.
Anyway, I would freak out at first when my husband would go to work because I would say, God, what if something happens to him?
Oh my God, what happens if, if he gets hurt or if he, if I lose him and something happens and all this stuff, I had all this worry and fear.
And I realized, well, number one, I walk by Faith and not by Sight.
And I had to trust God as His Word says and pray Psalm 91 every day, knowing that He's got David tucked under His Wing,
knowing that He's got our children, our grandchildren,
and all those we love and hold dear, tucked under His Wing and protected by the Blood of Jesus,
angels so that we don't dash our foot against a stone; God's got us protected.
And I knew that. I knew that.
I knew what His Word said, but it was deeper than that.
It was deeper than that.
It was not making him an idol in my life, not putting him as God in my life, and not putting anything before God.
If you put God first, everything else comes.
You'll have the strength you need to endure;
you'll have the wisdom and knowledge that you need to endure.
You call upon the Scriptures and have them and know that they'll sustain you because they come from God.
I can't be everywhere where my children are, David's are, or I say my children for David's children.
I can't be everywhere where they are; I can't do it, but God can; God's omnipresent, God's everywhere, so when we put God first. and relinquish control, then truly He can be there to help us, and His Word can sustain us.
And it's true. It's Truth. We speak it over our lives, and It has power.
He will never leave us nor forsake us.
He will see us through. We are protected. His promises guide us, strengthen us, and keep us.
No plague shall come nigh thy dwelling.
We won't succumb to the snare and the fowler, any attempts of the enemy, but we have to put God first and have joy.
Situations will come, and trials and sorrow.
We live in a fallen world.
Yes, bad things can happen to good people.
Yes, people who we love can be taken from us, but we have to have the strength to endure every trial.
I've suffered loss, loss of my father and my mom, and so many in my life; trauma threatened to destroy my entire family.
But I choose life now. I choose life.
I choose to anchor into the Holy Vine of Truth and draw strength from the Wellspring of Living Water, from the Bread of Life.
He sustains us. He strengthens us.
His body was broken so we could live.
Many of us have Communion elements, and when we pull the bread out of the package, and we bring it forth, it has significance.
You see, because Jesus was broken so we could live.
He broke the bread. Blessed it.
He was our blessing from God. He was broken. He had stripes.
He bore all that suffering so we don't have to.
We can be set free from addiction, from depression, all of it,
from the shame, the guilt, the fear, and the regret.
He was broken so we could live; we are to eat of the Bread of Life so He can sustain us, so we don't have to live as broken creatures.
In the past, shame, guilt, fear, and regret from our past mistakes from living in survival mode and coping through addiction.
He was broken. His blood was shed on Calvary so that we eat and drink of Him.
We will never be hungry or thirsty again.
We will have joy because we have Communed at the table with our Lord, and everybody that eats of that Bread of Life, drinks. of that Wellspring of Living Water,
recognizing that Blood Lamb Sacrifice for us all. He bore our sin. He rescued us through His Mercy and Grace.
He set us free.
Don't be held in bondage anymore.
There's no need for all of that.
He died so we could live.
That's what I want you to know today.
That's what this episode of Reflective Hour is about.
Hope, Love, transformation, and Sustenance through seasons of lack, famine, and drought.
Call upon Christ.
Look to Abba, Father.
Look to His Word.
Look to Ephesians. Look to the Psalms: Psalm 23, Psalm 91.
Seek His truth.
Let Him sustain you and redeem you.
Father, strengthen them. Strengthen their physical man and their spirit man.
Give them the strength to endure another day.
Give them the strength to call out to You.
Give them the words that they need to find You.
Let them know the love that the Light of Life brings, the Spirit of Truth, that sustains us.
Amen.
Again.
That's today's episode of Reflective Hour with Tammy Toney-Butler.
