Devotional| Daily Bread by Jodie McCarthy

2020, what a year! What have you been learning? What has this year been teaching you?

This year I have learnt how to make sourdough bread. It is quite a process over a number of days, feeding the starter, stretching the bread, proving the dough. It is a slow process, nothing can be hurried, everything happens at the right time. I have discovered I love making bread, I love the pace, the way you need to be present and observe. I love the fact that it is new to me and I am still learning; and I love that we have sourdough toast for breakfast.

And this year God has been teaching me about bread too. His daily bread, his manna. For 2020 has brought home to me that I have absolutely no idea what each day will bring and I need to look to him for what I need.

The bible tells us that manna was provided for the Israelites as they wandered through the desert after their escape from Egypt.

I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. Exodus 16:4 (NIV)

The Israelites had just left Egypt and they were in a place of exile, and uncertainty. The future was unclear, the paths they were travelling were unknown. Sound familiar?

We are in a time of great uncertainty and yet this passage reminds us that through the wilderness, he provides. He provides daily.

And God’s instructions to the Israelites are to gather enough for that day, and not to hoard. Hoarding is an indicator of lack of trust. We have a clearer understanding of hoarding this year, we have seen it in action.

In the story in Exodus, those who hoarded their manna found it ended up rotten and full of maggots. They had not trusted fully in their father.

And we do the same, it doesn’t have to be in groceries (or even toilet paper!). It can be, “Father, I don’t trust that my child will get into that school like you promised, so I’m registering in three more”. It can be holding onto a ministry you need to let go of, so you can be called to the new. For there are so many things God asks us to trust him with.

Yet, when the Israelites did as God had asked and gathered only enough for that day the image that follows is beautiful:

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed. Exodus 16: 17-18

I find it amazing that those who gathered much had just the right amount and those who gathered little also had just the right amount. The provision of God is shown after the gathering at the measuring. “Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.”

My meditation on this passage has sparked a new journal practice for me. Where I seek God’s daily bread with three questions:

– What do I need today for me?
– What do I need today for my family?
– What do I need today for my community?

And this is my manna practice if you like, going to God first with my needs, trusting him to provide and gathering from him what I need for the day.

So, I sit with God and write in my journal. At the end of the day I go back and reflect on these questions, and like the measuring of the manna in Exodus I see God’s provision.

I see he gave me just enough patience for that child and the right words for that situation. I see he reminded me to call that friend and we were both fed by a soul conversation. He gave me a snippet of a song to spark a new piece of writing and an unexpected rainbow to make me smile.

Today, may you see his provision of exactly what you need.

Peace be with you,
Jodie