Don’t Trust the Manna, but the Lord of the Manna

Many of us are familiar with the story of manna and the Israelites, and how God instructed them to have just enough for a day. But, of course, they collected extra manna, which is the sensible thing to do, according to human understanding. However, it was not the sensible thing to do when God had asked them not to do that, but to trust Him. He doesn’t want our relationship with Him to be based on common sense or rationality, but purely on trust. (Life is much easier and smoother when relationships are built on trust.)

Where trust doesn’t exist, fear controls. Their fear for tomorrow led to having extra manna, but little did they know that manna would be available for them for the next forty years until they settled in the promised land.

The problem is not the manna, but when we trust the manna above the word of the One who provides the manna. The problem is when we sleep in peace at night because we have extra ‘manna’ for the next day, instead of our peace being founded in the One who provides the manna. It’s okay to collect ‘manna’ as the Lord instructs, but we need to do it in accordance with His guidance and instructions and not be influenced by the environment and circumstances that surround us.

There is no problem having plans for tomorrow, but the problem comes when we put our trust in those plans. We say, “I’ve got all figured out”, but our God is so loving and caring that He sometimes teaches us how to trust Him by stripping away everything that we have put our trust in. Then we are left with no options but Him.

Manna was to test the children of Israel with how much they trusted the Lord, and the same is true for us today. Is there an area of our lives where we’ve collected extra ‘manna’ and we feel at ‘peace’ because of the mechanisms we’ve put in place for our tomorrow? I would encourage you to surrender those areas to the Lord.

Apart from manna testing our trust, it also tests our obedience. If we trust God, then we will obey Him when He tells us to collect enough for today and not worry about tomorrow. We will trust that His Word is far more important than the ‘manna’ itself.

Instead of using all our efforts and energy only to realise that yesterday’s manna is irrelevant for today, we need to trust God for fresh manna each new day. It’s easier and life-giving to trust Him. Those who collected extra manna ended up working harder than everyone else for two days. They collected extra manna but then had to clean it up when it rotted away. It’s okay to have ‘manna’ as He directs us. But let’s not put our trust in the ‘manna’, but in the One who provides it.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to put my trust in You, with my daily decisions, today, tomorrow, my future, and my life. Thank You that You never disappoint. You never break hearts, never fail, nor lie, for You’re not like a man. You’re consistent in Your character. Sorry for the times I have doubted You and collected more ‘manna’ than required. I choose to put my trust in You, in Jesus’ name, Amen.