You are not the things you do, but nobody agrees. It’s why a reputation can precede a person, and why proving yourself is all in the doing of things. Jesus knew about that, and he knew better what it took to deliver. The day he fed the 5000 was the day he walked on water. It was a day for believing Jesus to be the son of God, because it was also the day that Jesus learned of his cousin’s brutal murder, before going on to accomplish some of his greatest feats.
The part of Jesus that was human was the part that could do great things, and then forget that he could do them. It was the part of him that could lose the awe of who he was within the haze of weariness and distress. So, it is the whole of us then that stands to be weakened by pain and loss and other things, while God’s strength is for every eventuality, delivering us to our finest moments, particularly when we have nothing to contribute. It’s really God who is informing others of who we are off the basis of what he enables us to do. And, it is really God who is being proved when he enables us to prove ourselves.
Jesus needed God to remind him that he was God, and he got to be reminded in the secret place– that is, alone time with God. That’s where you lament to God and he nudges you with the truth– of what he and you have done before, and what he and you will go on to exceed. It’s where you get refuelled, not to accomplish things in your own strength, but to believe that God will come through for you. But more importantly, it is a place where you come to know God enough to trust him with your reputation. Jesus visited that place in between miracles and it gave him the core strength to balance on the water.