Happy New Year! How are you feeling as the calendar resets with 365 new days? Maybe you’re excited about opportunities ahead or inspired to make positive changes and you couldn’t wait to turn the page and start fresh. Perhaps it’s the opposite and challenging circumstances are creating apprehension over what lies ahead. Or, maybe you feel a little of both.
Regardless of the emotions stirred up by the top of the calendar, the days ahead will come toward all of us the same way….one day at a time…and thankfully, God’s mercies come the exact same way.
In Exodus 16, we find this truth on display. After the Lord delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage by miraculously parting the Red Sea, they found themselves in the wilderness. Hungry.
Hearing their grumbling and knowing their needs, God provided for his people in a most unusual way with some very specific instructions.
Six mornings a week, God sent bread from heaven, called manna. They were told to gather “a day’s portion every day” except for the sixth day when they were told to gather two day’s portions. On that day only, they were instructed to set aside a portion for the next day, a Sabbath day of rest when there would be no bread to collect. All other days, Moses cautioned them against laying aside any for tomorrow (v. 4-5, 19, 22-26).
So, each day, “they gathered, some more, some less. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.” Sure enough, some tried to set aside a bit for the following day, but those that did woke up to find rotten, stinky bread, unfit for consumption (v. 17, 18, 20).
I certainly can’t shake a finger at the Israelites that tried to hoard a little extra for tomorrow despite God’s instruction. It’s easy to look ahead and become consumed by thoughts of tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year and think a little reserve might come in handy in case God doesn’t come through.
The thing is, God always comes through in his way and certainly doesn’t need our back-up plan. For forty years, he sustained the Israelites day by day in the wilderness with manna (v. 35). Forty years!
I’m not saying we should never plan or prepare for the future. That would simply be irresponsible. Rather, we must hold loosely to our plans with a willingness to obey and surrender, ultimately relying on him to “give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3).
As this new year dawns, I don’t know what your manna…that sustenance you need God to supply fresh to you each day…looks like. Whatever it is, look to him. Ask him. Trust him to provide manna for you today and rest in his promise to take care of tomorrow.
He already knows what you need for all your tomorrows and will provide for each of them one day at a time.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” ~ Lamentations 3:22
