Fully Face Your Fear
The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?—Psalm 27:1 (NIV)
God said to Moses, “I’m going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day’s ration. I’m going to test them to see if they’ll live according to my Teaching or not.”—EXODUS 16:4 MSG
It seemed like such a simple test. The directions were clear; the time frame was easy enough to handle. No study for the exam was needed. All the preparatory work was done.
Yet many failed.
With God fighting the battle, the people of Israel had escaped the tyranny of Egypt. Now they were a free people—but faced with nothing to eat, they wouldn’t live to enjoy it. Or so they thought.
God told Moses that He would provide bread, manna from heaven. All the people had to do was gather it up each morning. A specific amount—no more, no less. And therein lay the test: Would the people follow the specific instructions each day? Or would they allow greed, laziness, or unbelief rule their response?
God has promised to provide our every need—strength, wisdom, ability, daily bread. But many of us fail when it comes to appropriating the gift. We allow greed (desiring more than we need), laziness (trying to cut out the necessary exercise of prayer and the food of God’s Word), or unbelief (“I need to help God out or it won’t be enough”) to keep us from His promises.
Today, let’s propose to succeed on God’s proving ground.
Father, please help me to follow Your instructions carefully so that I may experience the best You have for me today.
The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?—Psalm 27:1 (NIV)
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.—Matthew 6:34 (ESV)
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”—2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)