Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force and make Him king, He departed the mountain by Himself alone.    John  6:15 NKJV

Our Scripture passage is taken from the historical account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 as recorded by John. When Jesus performed the miracle of feeding 5,000 people with just five small loaves of bread and two fish meant to be the lunch for one young boy, the people were amazed. Now the Bible says 5,000 men so it is estimated that when you include women and children it could have been as much as 20,000 total. They came to realize that He was probably the Prophet that Moses had spoken of in Deuteronomy 18:15.

There was a lot of confusion among the people over who Jesus actually was as there is today. Jesus was the Messiah. He was a part of the Holy Trinity being the Son who was sent to earth in the flesh to die on a cross so that His blood could wash our sins away.

Many of the Jews at that time were looking for a political ruler. They had been oppressed by the Romans and were counting on the Messiah being sent to them as a political king. Jesus knew their motives were against God’s will and so He sent them away and He went up to the mountain to pray.

There were many people who followed Jesus as we tend to follow movie stars, rock stars and politicians. They followed Him around in these massive crowds just to see what miracle He would perform next. They followed Him but for the wrong reasons.

They wanted to make Him king, but not in a spiritual sense. And if you ask me, not much has changed. Many people follow Jesus for the wrong reasons. They go to church to impress other people.

There are people who pay more attention to what politicians and movie stars do and say than they do to what is in the Bible. Our news feeds fill with what’s happening with the stars and the royals. We are often distracted by what’s happening in our nation and find ourselves fretting over what’s on the news.

Sometimes I think we forget who is really in charge here. Paul reminded us in Romans 13:1 to let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Whether or not you voted for or like who is in office, you need to know that they are there because for whatever reason God allowed them to be there. It could be to help us or to punish us, but they are there under God’s authority and to resist them is to resist the ordinance of God according to Romans 13:2.

If Christ rules our daily lives then we have no need to fear. We can trust in Him and not in politicians or economics or anything else. We must be careful not to allow the devil to distract us with all the problems that are going on in the world. Jesus told us in John 16:33 that in this world we would have trouble, but we should not fear because He has overcome the world.

If you are too busy focusing on politicians and the world news or what movie stars and royals are doing, give yourself a break and focus on Him. Trust in Him to take good care of you regardless of what is going on in this cold, cruel world. Trusting in human beings can always bring disappointment. But when we trust in God we cannot fail.

Have a great day!