Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: “Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.”’”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, June 17, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Daily bread is just that: daily. It can be so hard to let go of future tripping—of worrying about what might happen at some unknown point in the days, weeks, months, or years ahead. It’s honestly difficult to believe that we will have what we need one day at a time, especially when we see so much evidence of poverty, which is caused by injustice which, if we’re honest about it, arises from this same fear of scarcity. God held the Israelites’ hands in the desert, giving them what they needed and commanding that they only take enough to feed them for a single day. Anything beyond that rotted.
And what of us? My life is busy. I need to make sure my kitchen is stocked so I’m not forever running to the grocery store. Is this a bad thing? I need to put future plans in place for my special needs adult children who will (if all goes well) outlive me. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so, as long as I’m aware that anything that happens beyond today is not up to me. I don’t control the future. I can’t see the future. I need to turn over everything in my life to God each and every day, trusting that God will provide me with “daily bread” to sustain me physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Do I struggle with future-tripping? Or am I content living one day at a time?
