God Provides

Scott McFarland
09/12/21 - Sun AM Worship

Give Us This Day…

This morning, we look again at Jesus’ miracle of the Feeding of the 5,000 and the sufficiency of God to provide us all of our needs.  In the course of planning the sermon and thinking about God’s providence, my mind was drawn to Jesus’ words in The Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matt. 6:11) In saying these words, Jesus points us not only to a request to God to provide, but also a request specifically for the immediate need—today.  In our world of excess, we often believe we need to have an abundance of supplies saved up “just in case.”  Remember at the beginning of the pandemic and everyone was buying up toilet paper and flour?  I remember walking out of Reisbeck’s and watching a man fill up the cab of his truck with toilet paper and paper towels.

In the story in Exodus 16 where God gives the Israelites manna for the first time, he gives them specific instructions: “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heave for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day…” (v. 4)  They were specifically commanded to gather only enough for the present day.  Some tried to gather more, but it rotted and stank.  God wanted them to depend on Him daily.  It was an exercise of faith.  Would they trust God to give them the day’s food, every day?

Do you trust God DAILY for your needs?  In a time where people clean the shelves of toilet paper and baking goods to prepare for a statewide shutdown, God is calling you to depend on him daily.  Trust in his provision and supply for TODAY.

       -Scott McFarland