Our God provides. He is faithful to meet our needs. These truths have been on my heart lately as I reflect on all that I am thankful for. The Lord has surely blessed my family, providing abundantly for our needs and more! There are seasons though when the blessings are just enough, maybe not abundant.
This is how the Israelites felt when they left Egypt.
The Lord led them out of Egypt, safely escorted them across the Red Sea, and delivered them from their enemies. The Israelites were overjoyed! “I will sing to the Lord for an overflowing victory!” (Exodus 15:1) They sang. They celebrated an abundant victory. Shortly after, they found themselves missing captivity in Egypt. “Oh, how we wish that the Lord had just put us to death while we were still in the land of Egypt. There we could sit by pots cooking meat and eat our fill of bread. Instead, you’ve brought us out into the desert to starve this whole assembly to death,” (Exodus 16:3). Suddenly they faced a new season, a season of just enough.
God heard the pleas of the Israelites, and He sent food. God tells Moses that He will rain bread down from the sky in the mornings and in the evenings he will provide meat. Each day the people are to take just enough for that day. The Lord strictly forbade the people to take more as a means of testing them to see if they trusted that God would provide for their daily needs. Some of the people obeyed, and their needs were met. However, some of the people still disobeyed, and the extra food that they collected spoiled and stunk. For forty years the Israelites lived in the dessert eating the bread (manna) and the meat (quail) that the Lord provided on a daily basis. At the end of the forty years the Lord brought the Israelites into the Promised Land, Canaan, the land of milk and honey and abundance.
Maybe you have felt this way before. Maybe you are in a season now where you are wondering if your resources will be sufficient. It is easy for us to rejoice in the abundance and to be disappointed in the “just enough.” Does this mean that God is any less faithful to provide? When we experience seasons of less, we must remember that this is not an indication of a lesser God. Our God still provides and remains faithful. The Lord delivered the Israelites after many years of wandering the desert. He never deserted them, although at times they felt like he had. He met their needs; he provided enough, and, after years of waiting, he provided abundance.
