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One Day at A Time from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

Today I want to talk about God’s supply chain and how He takes care of us. Too many times we see people confuse God with Santa Claus and their prayer becomes gimme, gimme, gimme. We have received prayer requests that were like this: “Please pray for the Lord to give me a large brick house, fully furnished, and paid for. A new Cadillac Escalade, fully loaded, and paid for.” The list goes on and on. God is not the Santa Claus of heaven. If you do want to receive the desires of your heart, then delight yourself in the Lord (Psalm 37:4).

Supernatural provision comes naturally. Just as the trees, the flowers of the field, the birds of the air, God provides what we need for today, but we usually have to participate in some way. Tomorrow there will be more as it becomes needed. We depend on Him each day for a fresh supply, which is directly proportionate to our needs. If tomorrow needs twice as much, then there will be twice as much provided.

In Exodus 16:11–26, the Lord rained manna from heaven on the Israelites while they wandered in the wilderness. It settled on the ground with the morning dew, was a pearl like color, and looked like small seeds, like coriander. It was about the size of a sesame seed. The Israelites called it manna, which means “What is it?” 

They learned to boil or bake the manna into cakes and it tasted like wafers made with honey. Each morning a fresh layer of manna would appear around the camp, enough to feed over a million people. The people that gathered a lot of it did not have too much, and the people that gathered a little, did not have too little. They learned to work with God each day. Israel could not make the manna appear, and God would not gather it for them. God provided more manna for them each morning, but the Israelites had to go get it.

They were commanded to not keep extra manna overnight, or try and hoard what God had given them. When some tried too, it “bred worms and stank.” God provided twice as much manna on the day before the Sabbath. So the people gathered twice as much on Friday, kept it over night and it did not go bad. On the Sabbath day, no manna appeared at all. When there was a double need, there was double provision to meet it. This pattern continued for forty years until Israel entered the promised land and ate the food there. God faithfully provided manna for them, and it was like eating sweet bread each day.

In 1 Kings 17, the prophet Elijah predicted a drought was coming on the land and there would be no dew or rain until he said so. Then he went and lived by the Brook Cherith. The Lord commanded ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat each day, in the morning and in the evening and he drank water from the brook. Elijah was provided for daily until it became time for him to move on.

After the brook dried up, the Lord told Elijah that He had commanded a widow in Zarephath to provide for him. So Elijah went to Zarephath and found that the widow was starving herself. She didn’t even have any firewood at her house for Elijah found her out gathering sticks.

Elijah asked her for some water and a piece of bread, to which she said that she had no bread, just a handful of flour in a bowl and a little oil in a jar. She was preparing a last meal for her and her son and planning to soon die of starvation. Elijah told her “Do not fear”, to go and make the bread, but to bring him some of it first, even before she fed herself or her son. Elijah said that the flour and oil would not run out until it rained, ending the three-year drought. That is a hard request during a time of famine when people are starving. Would God ask a starving widow to give part of her last meal? Apparently so. Why? To teach her to trust Him. Her very life depended on it.

The widow went and did as Elijah asked and her bowl of flour did not run out, nor did the little jar of oil run dry. She, her household, and Elijah ate ‘for many days’, quite possibly for the next two years. God did not provide two years of flour and oil for them at once, but the amount they needed for that day. It was a time of famine, and if a large supply room of food would have been discovered at the widow’s house, they would have been robbed by nightfall.

Just as the manna fell each day, just as the ravens came each day, the flour and oil were refilled each day.

In Luke 12:15, Jesus told a parable of a rich man whose harvest was so abundant that he did not know what to do with it all. So he decided that he would build even bigger barns to store it for years to come, and to eat, drink and be merry. God called this man a “fool”, which is very strong language for scripture.

After this Jesus spoke of the ravens which neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them, day by day. Then He spoke of the lilies of the field which neither toil nor spin, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. The lily cannot even move from where it is planted, yet God takes care of it each day.

Then Jesus said: (Matthew 6:30–34 NASB)  “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Summary: 1: God will take care of tomorrow when it gets here, just as the manna fell each day, just as the ravens came to Elijah each day, just as the flour and oil came to the widow each day. 2: Storing up possessions and building bigger barns, while ignoring the kingdom of God makes you a fool in His eyes. 3: Sometimes the Lord will ask you give Him something first, before He takes care of you for the next couple of years. It is trusting Him to take care of us, one day at a time.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I choose to trust in You and I know that You are going to take care of me just as the birds of the air and the grass of the field. Please give me the grace to do my part here. Speak to me in a way that I understand and guide me into all that You would have me do on this Earth, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.