We can encounter a lot of problems in our lives. Sometimes they’re big, and other times they may not be as important. But in today’s story we’re going to learn all about how God is there for us and will help us with our problems.
John 6:5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?”
Jesus was kind of like a celebrity. He healed hundreds of people, so people would travels many miles to simply touch his robe to be healed. The people in this story had been sitting there for hours to listen to Jesus teach, and they were probably getting pretty hungry.
They probably gelt pretty similar to they way you feel when you’re sitting in class waiting for lunch. You can smell the food and it’s making you super hungry. Except the difference is, these people didn’t even have a lunch to look forward to. None of them had brought food.
So, in this story we see that Jesus is using this to test his disciples. He asked them what they were going to do, even though he already had a plan. Let’s take a look at what happened next.
John 6:8-9 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
There were thousands of people there, so one kid’s lunch definitely wasn’t enough to feed everyone. So what were the disciples supposed to do? Jesus had an answer.
John 6:10-11 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted.
Jesus fed everyone with just five loaves of bread and two fish. Not only did he just feed them, but they ended up with more leftovers than they had started with. But what’s the point of all of this? Well, Jesus wanted to teach us a few truths..
We All Face Problems in Life
Sometimes your problems aren’t very big. Maybe your problem is you can’t find an outfit to wear or you don’t have anywhere to sit at lunch. But other times our problem are a little bigger. These kinds of problems are things like getting into a fight with a really good friend, or maybe even family problems. We all have problems, but there’s some good news that we can learn from this story.
God Want Us to Trust Him to Fix Our Problems
In this story Jesus showed us that he is there to fix our problems. The disciples were in a tough situation that seemingly had no solution. But Jesus had the power to help them, and he did. And he wants to do the same for you. God wants you to let him help you with your problems.
God Will Help in the Big and Small Problems of Life
The problem the disciples faced in this story really wasn’t a big one. If the people got too hungry they could have just left. But this just goes to show that there is no problem too small or too big for God. He could help you when you were fighting with a friend, or for comfort when taking a test. With any problem you may face God has your back.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- As a group, list some of Jesus’ most famous miracles.
- What are some common problems that teenagers face?
- When you have a problem, how do you normally handle it?
- Read John 6:10-13. Why do you think Jesus created so much food that there were leftovers? What was he trying to teach people?
- What is one problem you have been facing in life recently? How can God help with that problem?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
