Manna Everyday

Remember the Israelites in the desert?  They experience an incredible adrenaline rush when God narrowly saves them from Egypt, but then they wander around (basically in circles) for years and years while they wait for permission (and guts!) to enter into the Promised Land. Several remarkable things occur in their lives while in the desert, but one experience in particular really resonated with me as I went to see the doctor’s each week as they monitored my ‘twin growth’:  Manna everyday.

The Israelites were forced to completely depend on God, every day, for the things they needed to survive. One of those things, as simple as it may seem, was food. The Israelites needed to eat and as you can imagine the food court in the desert was pretty lean. In order to take care of His people, in his awesome “only God” way, He literally had it rain down food they could eat (manna), every morning.

Pretty creative, if you ask me.  Can you just picture it?  I feel like it’s the version of “Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs” we have all been hoping for!  Just imagine the poor guy that decided he was going to get into shape for his New Year’s Resolution.  He laces up his sandals, takes a minute to stretch, and starts his run before the sun comes up. Suddenly, just as he starts to think running was a bad idea (because really, who thinks it’s a good idea to run for anything other than a great sale on Black Friday?) it starts pouring down manna and he’s having to dodge pieces as he tries to make it back to his tent in one piece!  Imagine the look on his wife’s face when he walks in the door, covered in manna, vowing never to run again!

I see so much humor when I read the bible some days…

There was one big rule with the manna, however. When you went to collect it, you were only supposed to get enough for THAT DAY. No stocking up. No planning the week ahead.  Just enough for today.  (I don’t know about you, but we buy in bulk in our home so the idea of just buying enough for ONE DAY seems absolutely foreign to me.) For those that tried to get enough for more than a day, they would find the manna would spoil overnight leaving them with a big mess to clean up, and a lesson on obeying God the first time when He gives instructions.

The Israelites had to completely depend on God, trusting and believing that He would provide Manna tomorrow as they gathered up enough for today.  It didn’t matter if they had sick parents that were depending on them to bring food, or kids begging for snacks at every turn throughout the day — there was no way to ensure they would be ‘covered’ for tomorrow.  No way other than to just rest in the promise God had made to them to provide for their needs.

As we were walking through the challenging months that followed the news that we were having twin babies, I found myself searching for my own ‘manna’ every day. I would wake up with new anxiety and new fear and would frantically search through my bible trying to find hope that I could cling to. I remember being a completely crazy person, walking through Target sobbing, as I realized the SIZE of the stroller I would soon have to push! I fell to my knees in the middle of the baby aisle, begging God for help (and Hope!) as I tried to embrace all of this! It was an urgency I had never felt before, because finding my ‘daily manna’ was the only way I knew to survive. God ALWAYS gave me something I was hungry for, providing me with the peace and strength I needed to make it through THAT day.  The funny thing, is that the hope I would find yesterday no longer seemed like enough. You would think that some days I would find the Costco-sized hope that would last for a few days, but it never seemed to work that way.  Each day I would wake up just as desperate, just as frantic for a new helping of truth that I could grasp and cling to, all day long. I needed fresh Manna, and I was hopeless without it.

God taught me something incredibly valuable during that season. He taught me that Trust is not a one-time event. When we are walking through a difficult season, whether it’s a medical prognosis that doesn’t look good, or a transition that is hard to embrace, trusting God is a choice we must make EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.  God never intended for us to shop at Sam’s Club or Costco when searching through His word.  He knew that in following Him, it would require us to make a decision every day, every morning, to seek Him, and to trust Him.

Psalms 5:3 says, “In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”

We’re to come to God each day, believing expectantly that He will provide exactly what we need.  He’ll provide what we’re eagerly searching for, and in the searching we’ll find He is always enough.

He always provides Manna for today…

…And He enthusiastically waits for me to seek Him again tomorrow.

Do you go out each morning, desperately searching for the manna God has for you?