Have you ever found yourself in panic over some moment of felt-crisis? That panic causes us to get something like amnesia, where we forget everything that’s ever happened.

That’s what happened to the disciples in Mark 8. They and Jesus were sitting in a boat when He warned them to watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. When Jesus mentioned leaven, there minds immediately went to bread, and they began to panic because they only had one loaf. That amnesia-like mindset began set in as they began to argue about having no bread. This, of course, was just after Jesus had fed thousands with a few loaves of bread.

He asked them, “Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?” And so, He began to help them remember. “When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And His reply was “Do you not yet understand?”

Understand what? That God always provides. In their panic, He was refocusing their memory. God’s past grace is the evidence that fuels hope for future grace. The God who provided yesterday has not run out today.

So when anxiety whispers, “There isn’t enough,” don’t just stare at your one loaf. Count your baskets from your past. Recall the prayers answered, the bills met, the doors opened. May your memory become your resting this week that fuels the belief that God will provide.

Change begins in you!