I Can Def Relate

Dear Friends,

This morning I’ve been pondering one of my favorite folks from the bible - Moses. I love his story because it shows God’s faithfulness to His people - both individually, and as a group. And that’s especially true in the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt. 

If you're unfamiliar with that story, here's a quick recap: God told Moses to go into Egypt to rescue the Israelites, who were slaves of the Egyptians. Moses obeyed God, and led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the desert - on their way to the Promised Land. Of course the problem with traveling through the desert was that it didn’t leave a lot of options for food. So when the Israelites got hungry, Moses went before God and asked Him to provide food. And God did. He sent “manna” - a food that the Bible tells us “lay like dew on the grass in the mornings.” (Exodus 16:14).

So each night while the Israelites slept, manna would fall from the sky and cover the ground. Then each morning, the Israelites would go out and collect it up and use it to make their bread and other meals. But here’s the twist: they were only allowed to collect what they needed for that day - no more, no less. Listen to how it's described in Exodus 16:17-19:  “The people of Israel went out and gathered this food - some getting more, and some getting less. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. Then Moses told them, ‘Do not keep any of it overnight.’ But some of them didn't listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell.”

The people were told they could only collect enough for one day - any more, and it would rot. Now, this might seem like strange advice to us because, after all, they were out in the desert and so a natural thought would be to stock up on food while it was available. But I think God gave these instructions because He knew that if their focus was on storing up food, they wouldn't be focused on Him and His ability to provide what they needed. So God gave them those instructions to keep them humbly dependent on Him.

The reason I’ve been pondering all of this today is because we’re at the end of the year, and a new year is always full of unknowns, so it’s easy for me to start stressing about being fully prepared for whatever happens. But when I go down that path I can miss out on what God’s doing today because I’m so focused on what might happen next month. So I need this reminder because what was true for the Israelites is true for us as well - God wants us to trust in His ability to provide what we need. 

Jesus drives this point home in Matthew 6:11 when He instructs us to pray and ask for God to give us, “our daily bread”. It's not our weekly, monthly, or yearly bread - it's our daily bread. Does this mean we shouldn’t plan for the future, or be good stewards with our money, or consider what God gives us today as a provision for tomorrow? Absolutely not. God wants us to use what He's given us wisely - but He wants us to do so with the understanding that He’s the one that has provided what we're using each day, and He will be faithful to provide for us tomorrow.

So today, join me in asking God to help us focus on His ability to provide what we need for today - and then help us to trust Him for tomorrow. Let's take all of our worries and cares about the future, and lay them at God's feet, confident in His ability to provide for us what we truly need each and every day.

Amen?

Daniel