Of late a thought has been constantly with me that all the work is dependent on God's blessing. Often we are faithful, but despite our faithfulness there is no blessing and no fruit. Often we are diligent, but despite our diligence there is no blessing and no fruit. Often we exercise our faith; we truly believe God can do something. We also pray that He would work, but everything is in vain when God does not bless us. Sooner or later, we who serve God must be brought to the point of expecting God's blessing. Without God's blessing, our faithfulness, diligence, faith, and prayers will be to no avail. However, if we have God's blessing, there will be fruit even if we seem to be wrong or hopeless. Therefore, all problems are a matter of God's blessing.
I would like to bring out the matter of multiplying the five loaves (Mark 6:35-44; 8:1-9) with respect to God's blessing. It is not a matter of how many loaves we have in our hands, but whether or not God has blessed them. Even if we had more than five loaves, this would not be enough to feed four or five thousand people. Even if we had ten times or even one hundred times more, we still would not have enough to feed four or five thousand people. It is not a matter of how much we have. Sooner or later, we must be brought to the point of seeing that it is not a matter of what we can pull out of our storage shed, nor is it a matter of how great our gift is or how much power we have. The day must come in which we say to the Lord, "Everything depends on Your blessing." This is a basic matter. How much blessing has the Lord really given us? It does not really matter how many loaves there are. The Lord's blessing nourishes people and gives them life.
One matter is troubling my heart: Do we truly treasure God's blessing? This is a basic question concerning the work. Perhaps we do not even have five loaves today, but our need is greater than four thousand or five thousand people. I am afraid that we have less in our storehouse than the apostles, while our need is greater than the need at the time of the apostles. Our own store, source, power, labor, and faithfulness will be manifest that they are useless to us one day. Brothers, our future holds great disappointment for us because we will see that we can do nothing.