"He Restores My Soul"

In Luke 9:1, Jesus gave His disciples power and authority, and sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. "And departing, they began going about among the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere." (Luke 9:6)
Pretty cool, huh? The miraculous took place at the hands of these ordinary men called by Christ. At His instruction, they went out and did the impossible.

Upon their return they told Jesus all that they had done and, the Bible says, Jesus took them and withdrew Himself to Bethsaida. It was time for rest.
But, as typically happened when Jesus was close, a crowd gathered. Jesus welcomed the people and began to preach and heal the sick among them. As the day drew on and the shadows began to grow, the disciples approached Jesus to say, "Send the crowds away. It's getting late. Send them to find food and shelter." But Jesus said to them, "You give them something to eat!" (Now keep in mind, they'd just been out healing the sick.) And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people." (Luke 9:13)
In other words, "We can't, Jesus. That's impossible! It can't be done!"

Isn't that amazing? One day they were so full of faith they could go out and preach the gospel, and even heal the sick everywhere they went. A few days later, they couldn't muster enough faith to trust Jesus when He told them to fix dinner.
One day He asks the impossible ("Go preach and heal the sick") and they run out and do it. A short time later He asks the impossible again (You feed the people") and they throw up their hands and say, "We can't."
One day, full of faith. The next, struggling to believe God is able.

There's a simple, but profound message here. You can't live on yesterday's faith. What you had yesterday will not sustain you today. One day the disciples had enough faith to do the impossible; the next day all they saw was the impossible.
Oh how often the same thing happens to us. I believe the Bible calls it being "weary in well-doing." Our faith gets tried, and it gets tired. And we find ourselves struggling to believe God with the same level of trust we had yesterday.

Been there? Me too. I've found the only thing that works when I find myself in that state is to get away from ministry and get alone with the Lord and His Word.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul ..."