When Israel was in the wilderness they were concerned about God providing food, “because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in His salvation. Yet He had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven.
Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.” Psalm 78:22-25. One of the interesting things to note is that God didn’t provide more than that which was needed to supply immediate needs at the time, except on Friday when they had to be prepared since they wouldn’t gather any on the Sabbath.
“‘This is what the Lord has told you to do: “Every man gather as much of it as he can eat. Take a jar for every person that each of you has in his tent.”’ The people did so. Some gathered much and some less. When they saw how much they had, he who had gathered much had no more than what was needed. And he who had gathered less had enough. Every man gathered as much as he could eat. Moses said to them, ‘Let no one save any of it until morning.’ But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it until morning. And worms grew in it and it became bad to eat. So Moses was angry with them. Morning after morning they gathered it, every man as much as he could eat. But when the sun became hot, it would melt.” Exodus 16: 16-21
In my own life there has been times when I went without knowing how I would provide for my needs in the future and it was only when things seemed to be getting hopeless that God provided when it was needed. There is a verse that explains the reason for this, “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.” Deuteronomy 8:2-4. Just as God taught Israel to have faith that God would provide for tomorrow rather than depending on their own resources for protection, God wants to teach us to trust as well by building our faith thought experience.
Because I didn’t get what I needed easily I could not give myself the credit for providing for my own needs or forget my need of God by thinking I was living by merit of my own wisdom and talents. I was forced into a position trust God because it was very clear I couldn’t do everything for myself and had to wait on the Lord to help me when and how God saw best. So if you are stressed about work, school, or some other major life event and don’t know how things are going to work out in advance maybe God doesn’t want you to. God maybe tried to get you to have faith that God can handle it for you. Whenever people start depend upon their own resources- like those who tried to horde the manna for future use- it fails. God will allow our own plans to fail us so we can see the folly of self-reliance. Even though the process of not knowing how everything will work out in advance may seem stressful at first in the long run as we develop trust in God’s ability to care for us we will have less stress.
