LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, October 10, 2024

When you woke up this morning did you do what we learned in the devotional yesterday? Did you spend some time enjoying the manna of your forgiveness and salvation? Did you rejoice that today you have been shown mercy by God in that you have been given life despite the failures and sin of yesterday? If not, do it now, and then make a commitment to start every day that way.

God teaches us another lesson of faith from the provision of daily manna in Exodus 16.

“This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Each one is to gather as much as he needs. No one is to keep any of it until morning.’”

Don’t demand more than what God is willing to give. God promised that the daily provision of sweet bread would be sufficient to nourish everyone for that day. No one was to try to carry over one day’s provision to the next, except where God made that possible to honor a Sabbath day. If the manna from today was saved for tomorrow, it would be useless. God wanted people to trust Him for every daily need.

But some of the people didn’t listen. I can imagine their thought process. It would go like this:

“Let’s pick up just a little bit extra, and not eat quite so much today, and we’ll save the rest for tomorrow so we don’t have to get up so early and go out a gather more. It’s going to be a hard day today and I want to be able to sleep in a little tomorrow. Besides. Isn’t it wise to plan ahead.”

Imagine a little further that tomorrow has arrived.

“Boy that felt good to get that extra hour of sleep. Look at all those people coming back from the fields with their manna. What poor planners they are. Let’s eat!”

They open up their jar and discover that their manna is ruined: filled with maggots. When they rush out to the field to get more, it is all gone, and for that day they go hungry. They learn a hard lesson – man’s plans never work when they are contrary to God’s direction.

My concern is that this philosophy has permeated our walks of faith as well. We will follow God for the benefits and use him to pad our comforts, but this daily dependence thing gets old fast. Then we wonder why our life is full of maggots. Why does the joy of the immediate benefit wear out so quickly? Why do we need to constantly be replacing the high with a new high? Do we realize the addiction we have to self-satisfaction? Why has God been relegated to the role of our personal trust-fund executor who must answer to our ever whim and wish?

We need to learn the lesson of faith that Jesus taught in Matthew 6, where He says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”… “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Let the truth of daily dependence on God sink in and enrich your life as you live it!

Pastor John