Forest for the Trees

I don’t know about anyone else, but sometimes I can’t see the forest for the trees.  Does anyone else ever have that issue?  I can become so wrapped up in what’s going immediately around me, and I forget that the bigger picture is much clearer than the focus on the tiny piece. 

God reminded me to pay attention to this idea in my Bible reading recently.  In Mark 8 after the Pharisees tried to test Jesus, He and the disciples climbed into a boat to travel to the other side of the sea.  They left the bread for dinner behind.  As they were traveling, the disciples began discussing the fact that they had no food for this leg of their journey.  I would like to picture Jesus looking at them like ‘You boneheads!’, eyes rolling at them the whole way across,but that would be my translation and not the bible’s translation.

Verses 17-19 says, And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread?  Do you not yet see or understand?  Do you have a hardened heart?  Having eyes do you not see?  And having ears, do you not hear?  And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces you picked up?’ They said to Him, ‘Twelve.’

He goes on to ask them if they remember the SECOND time he broke the seven loaves for a group of four thousand!  They were with Him!  How on earth could they have already forgotten?! 

The truth is, I can be the same way with His provision and gifts to me.  We often thank Him for what He does in our life, and then forget that He’s still there the moment a new problem arises. 

Verses throughout the bible tell us that God provides all we need.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 4:19

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. –Psalm 23:1

The lions grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. –Psalm 34:10

We don’t need to be focusing on the problem.  We need to be focusing on Jesus.  He’ll take care of the rest.  We can’t forget how loving and gracious He is to us in our time of worry.  When we focus on the work God has already done in our lives, we have the hope of further provision given to us by our Heavenly Father.

Before we make the same mistakes that the disciples made and forget so quickly of the of what the Lord has done, let’s sow these verses into our hearts to always see the forest AND the trees.

~Erin