Welcome to the first week of our series, Loaves & Fishes! I announced this summer series in last week’s Happy Monday, and I loved your enthusiastic response! Loaves & Fishes will feature Bible stories that remind us of God’s provision. If you’ve been feeling impatient, stressed, or discouraged, this series will give you hope to keep trusting God one day at a time.
Today’s question: Will God still take care of us even when we’re having a hard time trusting Him? Spoiler alert: The answer is yes. The story we’re exploring today also includes four “Provision Principles” for you to remember this week.
In Exodus 16, the Israelites were in the wilderness after fleeing Egypt. They’ve been freed after 400 years of slavery, and God split the Red Sea to save them from the Egyptian army one final time. One would think all of those miracles would be unforgettable! Nope. Just one month later, here’s what happened:
…There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron. “If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” they moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” -Exodus 16:2-3 NLT
Notice that it was the WHOLE community. Complaining is contagious! The Israelites were so unhappy that they thought about going back into slavery for some meat was a good plan. Apparently, the Israelites came down with an unfortunate case of “what have you done for me lately?” because they’d already forgotten that God had done for them.
I can be forgetful, too. God heard me whining earlier this week about something I’ve been praying for, so this devotion was well-timed for me, too.
Provision Principle #1: When we’re too focused on what we don’t have, we forget what God has already done for us.
I know that many of you are waiting for big, important prayers to be answered. At the same time, what comes to mind more - what you’re waiting for or what you’re grateful for?
Did you know that gratitude calms your nervous system, allowing you to be a healthy presence around others? When we’re calm, it’s easier for us to connect with God and hear Him better, rather than let our panicked inner voice get in the way.
Action Step: If you catch yourself complaining or grumpy, grab a journal and keep track of God’s blessings this week. Last week, I had to do this, and I smiled when I saw the written evidence of God’s grace and blessings toward me. As we remember what God has done, gratitude reassures us that God will remain faithful in the future.
Provision Principle #2: God Promises to Provide, and We Don’t Need to Earn His Provision.
Friends, this next part is wild! Here is God’s response to their complaints. This stuns me. Every. single. time.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. -Exodus 16:4 NLT
Instead of leaving the complaining Israelites to their own devices, God performed a miracle. What?! He told Moses that food would fall from heaven. Have you ever seen food drop from heaven? Me, neither. Why would God show such generosity even though they’d hadn’t earned it nor had they even had faith? God provided because He promised to provide. Period.
God’s promise to provide continues for us today. As Paul the Apostle writes to the Philippian church from his prison cell, he reminded them not to be anxious (Philippians 4:6-7) and also this:
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:19 NIV
Don’t miss this: We often picture provision as financial or tangible. Yet, God provides even richer spiritual provision: peace, rest, wisdom, direction, transformation, and comfort. These are rich expressions of God’s generosity, and they remind me of a powerful slogan: We may not always receive exactly what we want, but God always gives us what we need. As you reflect on something or someone you’ve been praying for, what spiritual provision have you received from God in this season as you wait?
Back to Exodus - Here we go:
Provision Principle #3: God is Not Stingy.
Back to the Israelites in the desert…not only did God send miracle food from heaven, but notice His generosity:
But when they measured it out, everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. Each family had just what it needed. -Exodus 16:18 NLT
Whenever I read this part of the story, I imagine how blessed the Israelite women were by the arrival of the manna. After a lifetime in slavery, God's provision wasn’t just food, but they no longer had to worry about not having enough to feed their families.
Everyone had enough to eat, from the picky eaters to the strapping teenage boys with big appetites. Since there were an estimated two million people, this meant God sent enough manna each day to feed the population of Phoenix or Philadelphia. That’s a lot of manna. But it wasn’t a problem for God because God isn’t on a budget, friends. As I heard old Baptist preachers say when I was a kid, “God has cattle on a thousand hills, so He has enough to take care of you.”
Side note: The women didn’t need to gas up the desert minivan or drive across town to the grocery store. God delivered the manna right to them every morning, so the women didn’t need to rack their brains figuring out what to cook each day. Not only did God take them out of slavery, but His provision also reduced their daily stress. Yes!
Provision Principle #4: Trusting God for His Provision is a Daily Test for Our Faith
Friend, do you believe that God will provide even when His timing looks different than yours?
Waiting for God’s provision makes my eyes twitch. When I’m not sure when God will provide, I can become anxious.
I wonder how long it took for the Israelites to realize that God was serious about feeding them each day? We can tell from the text that they didn’t believe Him at first. In Exodus 16:4, God told the people not to save the manna overnight and to trust that He would provide it each day. But, they disobeyed, and the next morning, they discovered rotten manna. But guess what, God still provided fresh manna even though they were disobedient.
Here’s where the Israelites missed it: Their hope was never in the manna. God was training them to realize their hope was in Him. Same for us. There will always be something missing, broken, or changed, yet our hope isn’t in whatever we’re waiting for.
Our hope is in God, and our faith journey is to trust His timing and His provision, even when it doesn’t look like we’d expect.
I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU: Where are you waiting for God to provide? If today's devotion hit the spot, leave a comment with “Manna” and let me know.
