September 6, 2019
Enough for Today
Sharon Jaynes
Today’s Truth
“Give us this day our daily bread…” (Matthew 6:11 ESV)
Friend to Friend
You could smell the fried chicken as we walked out of the restaurant, but we pranced out as if nothing was unusual.
When I was in dental hygiene school my friends and I never had enough money to go out to dinner…unless it was all-you-can-eat night at Wilbur’s Barbeque. On those nights, we gathered our pennies and ate until we hurt. We filled our tummies with fried chicken, hushpuppies, barbequed potatoes, coleslaw and banana pudding. I can almost taste it years later. Then, when we thought no one was looking, we slipped the leftover chicken and hushpuppies into our oversized purses…enough to last for a few days. I’m sure we weren’t fooling anyone as the aroma followed us out the door.
OK, so I know this might not have been the right thing to do. It was a long time ago. Sorry, Wilbur. But today, I was thinking about us fried-chicken-smelling poor college students, as I read God’s commands to the Israelites in the wilderness. Remember the story?
God freed about 2 million Israelites from years of Egyptian slavery. They crossed the parted Red Sea on dry land and headed for the wilderness. After a few days, they grumbled against the LORD, and wished they were back in Egypt where they “sat around pots of meat.” Yes, they preferred slavery to the known, rather than freedom in the unknown. As we say in the South, “that will preach.” But let’s talk about the food situation. Here’s what God said:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” (Exodus 16:4-5 NIV)
Now let’s skip down to 16:17-20.
The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
Moses wasn’t the only one mad at Israelites who hid the food. God was angry because they didn’t trust Him. He gave them a test, and some of them failed miserably.
Which brings me to my own issues with trusting God. Do I trust Him to provide for me today? Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. But today? What keeps me from believing that God is enough and will give me enough?
Didn’t Jesus tell us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread?” Not weekly. Not monthly. But daily.
Here’s a truth we can hang on to. God will never put us in a situation in which He is not enough or will not give us enough. He is more than enough to give us our daily bread, whatever that bread may look like in our individual situations.
In the New Testament, we read the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21) and the 4,000 (Matthew 15:29-39). When did the meager pieces of bread multiply and become enough? When it was put in Jesus’ hands. When will our “meager pieces of bread” (what we do have) become enough? When we put them in Jesus’ hands. A little is always enough when God’s in it.
Jesus doesn’t just give us what we need. Jesus is what we need. He is the bread of life.
Let’s Pray
Father, thank You for giving me what I need to face each day. Help me to not worry about tomorrow but trust You for today.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
Ponder these verses from Matthew 6:25-34 ESV.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Underline or highlight every time you see the word “therefore.”
What does the “therefore” point back to?
What are you trusting God for today?
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Originally published Friday, 06 September 2019.
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