already in mind

There’s a coaching technique I use a lot: I ask questions. I do that to make people think things through. 

This morning, reading in John 6, I saw Jesus using the same technique. Here it is, in verses 5 and 6: “When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”

I forget that Jesus always knows what he’s going to do next. He’s never at a loss. He never needs time to figure it out. In fact, time as I understand it doesn’t limit him at all. 

Whenever it seems to me that God isn’t giving me an answer, it isn’t because he doesn’t have one. In fact, he has a plan before I even have a problem. He sees me like he sees Philip, an earnest disciple trying to figure out what discipleship really means in the face of day-to-day conundrums. So he gives me space to think. He gives me time to trust.

Too often, I don’t. Too often I fear. Too often I see the hard thing looming in front of me, and that fills my mind. I don’t think through all the promises God has given; I don’t remember his faithfulness. 

Just as often, though, I do. I trust. I say a prayer and move forward. Even eagerly sometimes; sometimes I’m aware that it’s God’s thing and I want to see what he’ll do.

Because I know for sure he’ll do something. In fact, he already has in mind what he’s going to do.