I am really enjoying teaching a class on Monday nights for new Christians. “My First Year in Christ” will be a one-year study helping Christians grow up into Christ. Last night’s lesson was on prayer, and one of the primary passages we looked at was Matthew 6:9-13. We spent quite a bit of time on “Give us this day our daily bread,” and what that means. It is the inspiration for today’s article.
Israel had been out of Egypt about six weeks when the complaining started. Six weeks. That’s it.
It’s almost mind-boggling. These are the same people who watched the Red Sea split down the middle. They walked across on dry ground while a wall of water held back on either side. They saw Pharaoh’s army go under. And now, a month and a half later, they’re standing in the wilderness with their hands on their hips, telling Moses they were better off as slaves.
Fear has a short memory.
What’s That?
Here’s where the story turns. God hears the grumbling, and He doesn’t blast them. He feeds them.
In Exodus 16:4, He says, I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. And every morning, that’s exactly what happened. The dew lifted, and the ground was covered with little flakes of something they’d never seen before.
The Hebrew is delightful. They look at it on the ground and say man hu — literally, what is it? That’s where the word manna comes from. They didn’t even have a name for it. They just had a question. And God answered the question by feeding them, day after day, for forty years.
But there’s a catch. He told them to gather only what they needed for that day. No more.
The Hoarding Problem
Verse 20 tells us some of them tried it anyway. Tried to gather extra. Tried to put a little aside, just in case. And the next morning, the leftovers were full of worms. It stunk.
Now look. That’s not God being petty. That’s God being a teacher.
The hoarding wasn’t a food problem. It was a faith problem. They didn’t trust that He’d show up again tomorrow. So they tried to take tomorrow into their own hands today.
I get it. We do this constantly.
We want the pantry, not the kitchen. We want six months of provision sitting on the shelf, so we don’t have to trust Him for six months. We want to know how the surgery is going to go, how the kids are going to turn out, what the next quarter looks like, and whether the diagnosis will come back clean. We want it all settled. Visible. Stockpiled.
And what God offers instead is a kitchen. He’ll feed you. But He’s going to feed you one meal at a time. And that’s on purpose.
Why Daily?
Here’s what I want you to see. God could have given Israel a year’s supply at the start and let them sleep in. He didn’t. Forty years of breakfast meant forty years of waking up and remembering that He was still there.
Manna wasn’t just calories. It was a relationship.
Jesus picked up the same thread when His disciples asked Him how to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11). The Greek word there — epiousios — is one of the most debated words in the New Testament. Translators have wrestled with it for centuries. The most likely meaning is something close to the bread we need for the coming day.
Not next month’s bread. Not next year’s bread. Today’s. Tomorrow’s at the latest.
That’s not poverty thinking. That’s covenant thinking. It’s the same lesson God taught Israel in the wilderness, lifted up and handed to a brand-new people.
What You’re Carrying That Hasn’t Arrived
Most of us aren’t worried about food. Let’s be honest. The fridge is full. The lights are on.
What we’re carrying is something else. Tomorrow’s hypothetical. Next year’s worst-case. Some scenario that has not even happened yet, that may never happen at all, and we are carrying the full weight of it today.
Jesus had something to say about that, too.
Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
—- Matthew 6:34.
That verse sounds simple until you realize how much of your mental real estate is rented out to a tomorrow that isn’t even here yet.
God isn’t asking you to figure out next year. He’s asking you to trust Him for tomorrow’s breakfast. And the morning after that, when you wake up and look outside, the manna will be there again.
A Challenge for Us
Sit with this question this week. What is the one tomorrow you have been carrying that has not even arrived?
Name it. Be specific. Don’t generalize. I’m worried about money is too broad. I’m worried about the bill in October — that’s specific. That’s something you can put down.
Then put it down. Not forever. Just for today. Trust Him for the breakfast that’s actually in front of you.
He fed Israel for forty years in a desert that grew nothing. He’s not going to forget you on a Tuesday in May.
I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.
— Exodus 16:4 (CSB)
