Bread for Today

After the children of Israel had been in the wilderness for a few weeks after being rescued from slavery, they began to grumble about the food they no longer had access to. They were missing Egypt and beginning to long to be there again, ready to go backward rather than forward.

I'm like that sometimes. There's nothing wrong with remembering what God has done in the past. In fact He encouraged the Israelites to build memorials and to hold feasts and to tell their children about what God had done for them - to sing His praises to the next generation. Remembering the past is one thing; longing for the past is another thing altogether.

I should never long for the good ole days with God but look forward with great anticipation toward what God is going to do now. God does not stop working in the world; He does not grow stagnant. If God is not doing something active in my life or the life of those around me, then the problem is with me or them, not God.

At the same time God does not want us to obsess over the future. Dreaming big dreams, praying big prayers, anticipating that God will do big things is great as long as I never forget that only God knows what tomorrow will bring. We have to trust Him for today AND tomorrow. When the Israelites went out in the mornings to gather the bread from Heaven, they were to take only enough for one day. If they tried to keep some over night it rotted - unless they were told to keep it. Jesus taught this same concept in the prayer He taught the disciples, "Give us this day our daily bread".

And besides, because I belong to Jesus my future is assured. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:37-39