Just Enough


Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:9b-10

This morning I was reading about manna.  The message was describing the loving providence of God. It dealt with how our merciful God meets our needs. It was lovely but to be quite honest, my mind wandered elsewhere while I was reading it.

When the Israelites were in the desert they were given manna and they were told to gather just enough for one day. (Exodus 16:4-5)  Of course the Israelites were human and some of them didn’t exactly obey the directive which led to some pretty nasty results. (Exodus 16: 20)  The manna they held onto for the future ended up filled with maggots. Gross!

Thinking about that aspect of the story made me wonder why they didn’t trust God? He said he would provide food every day but they doubted…. Suddenly I became very uncomfortable with my thoughts as another Bible verse came to mind. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:34.  Who looks unfaithful now Patricia? Oh yeah, that chick in my mirror.

This comparison came to me two days after I let the enemy run rampant in my head on his little “what if” unicycle.  I literally made myself sick over some what ifs. These are things over which I have zero influence let alone control. They are also things that may or very well may not occur. On top of that they aren’t any part of today. Oh heaven help me, I’m an Israelite! 

The passage from Matthew 6 ends with the words about tomorrow but it begins with the same admonition. “Therefore I tell you do not worry….”  (Matthew 6:25 emphasis mine) Worry is the child of unfaithfulness.  If I have faith that God is for me then I have to believe that he will see me through whatever happens.  When I don’t believe it I worry. Worry takes me away from God, as it has shifted my focus to myself.  I have then become egocentric  as opposed to Theocentric and that makes life hard.  

Like the Israelites manna there are areas in my life that are ugly, covered, theoretically in maggots.  Why ? I didn’t obey the directive.  God says, “trust me.”  When I don’t things get much harder and much more complicated.

The other day in a conversation with my son Paul I said to him, “You’re making this much harder than it has to be.”  Hmm… How easy it is to see it when it’s someone else, like my son, like the Israelites but not so clear when it’s me.

Today is a good day.  It is a gift from my loving Abba. Why would I want to waste one precious minute worrying about tomorrow or next week or next year? I suppose the answer is because I am as human as the Israelites and while I believe with all of my heart that God’s will is best there is that ugly little voice that asks, “but what if it isn’t what you want it to be?”  The answer to that is then what I wanted was wrong. If I follow his directives and stay close to him God will always provide for me, just enough and then some.

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