Spiritual Manna
How many can remember the story of the children of Israel gathering Manna every morning accept on the Sabbath to find the sustenance needed to make their spiritual journey from Egypt to the Land of Promise?
We are told that they first of all began to murmur among themselves about all the onions, leeks and melons they had left behind in Egypt, and were now hungering for physical food to satisfy their appetites. Then they complained to their leader, Moses. He then went before God on their behalf. God in turn gave them daily Manna.
Now for the Israelites to be consistent, they had to go out each morning and gather the food. They also had to finish using it and eating it by a certain time of the day, or it would begin to rot, smell and be eaten by worms. God had told them through Moses: “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.” [Exodus 16:4].
Did you catch exactly what God was saying to the Israelites? He had told them that they were to go out and collect the same amount of manna every day. They were to be consistent in the amount of food they gathered for their daily use and no more.
God is still delivering Holy Manna each and every day for our use: He expects us to be consistent in the reading and study of his Holy Word. For in it we find the spiritual food that we need to be strong followers of the Christ: To become a people that will share and not horde what we have; who will become a praying people who want to draw closer to God the Father through Jesus, the Christ.
Listen once again to the words of the psalmist: “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” [Psalm 68:19]. Jesus attempts to instruct us in the same way of thinking and practice in the prayer pattern he taught His disciples: “Give us this day our daily bread” [Luke 11:3].
So how do you and I gather this daily bread? As I stated a bit ago, one location is the Bible, God’s Holy Word. But there are other times and localities as well.
There is one fast food product today that is almost a favorite of any true blooded American: chicken nuggets. These small morsels of protein not only satisfy the taste buds of many of us, but each one generates just a little bit more energy within us to give us a boast to make it a little further on our way.
As we go about doing our daily routines we need to be consistently looking for those nuggets of faith upon which to feed our spiritual life. Definitely there are times of great blessing and wonderful provision given to us just for the asking and receiving. So we must be on the constant lookout for these bits of spiritual food upon which to feed. All that is needed are a few nibbles of God's goodness and faithfulness to make our day a little easier to live.