I'm reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with some women from my small group this summer, and the Lord has used so many things in this book to teach me important truths about Himself. But one in particular stands out.
In the book, Corrie is telling a story of when she was a little girl and her family went to visit a young mother whose baby had just died. When she saw the baby's lifeless body, it impacted her greatly, and she became terrified of her family members dying. How could she survive without them?
That night, when Corrie's father came to tuck her in bed, she was visibly upset, and she cried out, "I need you! Don't leave me!"
“Corrie,” her father said, “when you and I go to Amsterdam — when do I give you your ticket?”
“Why, just before we get on the train.”
“Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need — just in time.”
This is great wisdom for how we should face the trials of life.
Before Moses died, he blessed each of the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel. To Asher, he said, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be (Deuteronomy 33:25, emphasis added). Hebrews 4:16 says, "Therefore let us approach with boldness the throne of grace that we might receive mercy and find grace for a well-timed help" (emphasis added). In other words, God gives us exactly what we need when we need it.
He gives us our ticket when it's time to get on the train, and not a moment before.
Jesus called this perfectly apportioned strength, this well-timed help, our daily bread. I usually forget that my daily bread is provided daily and not in bulk weekly, monthly, or even yearly. So when I let my worrying mind wander into the future, catastrophizing and agonizing about all the possible "what if" scenarios the year could bring, I'm doing so on an empty stomach. I don't have a year's worth of bread today; I have the bread—and therefore the strength—I need for today today. The future, as scary and unknown (and tempting to worry about) as it is, is not my business—it's the Lord's. So I must leave it in His capable hands.
The Israelites had daily bread, too, although they called it manna. Every morning, they had to gather enough manna for one day and no more. But a lot of them gathered more manna than they needed with the intention of hoarding it overnight so they could be absolutely sure they'd have some for tomorrow. Fear of the future reigned in their hearts. In order to teach them how to trust, God caused the manna to rot overnight so they'd have to go out the next morning and collect new bread (Exodus 16:20). He gave them no choice but to trust Him, and they never went a day without bread. We won't either.
Although everything we have is manna in some sense, since it's all a gift from God, there are certain seasons when we're more keenly aware of our daily need to trust God for provision. Those seasons are hard, because most of us would probably prefer that God just deposit $10 million into our bank account, so we'd know we'd have enough money to last us until we die, and then give us the written story of our lives, from beginning to end, so we could see how and when every problem we'd ever face would eventually resolve itself. We'd rather skip the trusting God part, because trust implies uncertainty about a future we have no control over. And we want to know what's coming.
But life is unpredictable and out of our control, which is how God has designed it, because through the trials and uncertainties of life, God wants to teach us to trust Him, to know Him, and to hunger for Him above all else. He's the point of this life, not our comfort.
"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God," Corrie wrote. We can find comfort in the fact that even though we don't know what's coming, we know the One who knows. And He has it all under His sovereign control.
Today, let's feast on our daily bread, and leave the rest to Him.
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