Posted on by intentional4christ

Miracles in the mundane

In the last few weeks of my bible study, I have been journeying with the Israelites through the book of Exodus as God delivers them mightily from their slave masters, the Egyptians. With mighty miracles and 10 great plaques, each subsequent one more severe than the former, God rescued the Israelites from the hands of their oppressors. After the last plaque, the Israelites had become such a nuisance to the Egyptians that they begged all of them to get out! Even in that chaos, God made the Egyptians so favorably disposed to the Israelites that they showered them with gifts (Exodus12:36)! Talk of an unbelievable turn of events!

For a people who had been in slavery for 430 years, can you imagine what the last few days before their freedom was like? With miracle after miracle, no two days were similar and the Israelites were in awe of God! Frogs one day, darkness the next, and yet another day they were walking on dry land in the middle of the Red Sea! With Egypt behind them and the Promised Land before them, here they were in the desert where they would spend another 40 years.

One month and fifteen days into the journey, the Israelites were still in the desert, starving and craving food from Egypt. They very quickly forgot all the miracles they had witnessed not too long ago and complained against Moses and God. In response, God rained down manna, a white flaky substance which tasted like honey wafers, from heaven for them for 40 years so they always had food to eat.

For 40 years, the Israelites had a new normal. They had to wake up first thing in the morning before the sun got hot, walk around and gather up two quarts each of manna for everyone in their tent. They would then grind the manna on a hand mill or crush it in a mortar. After which they boiled it in a cooking pot or shaped it into cakes and baked it (Numbers 11:7), and that would make up a part of their sustenance for the day. The habit of waking up, gathering their manna for the day and preparing it had become so routine and so mundane that they forgot the miracle of the manna.

Exodus 16: The manna came down with the dew first thing in the morning and as the sun came up the manna would melt so it was not in their way as they went about their daily activities (vs. 21). They picked up their food from the dusty desert floor and yet it was clean and healthy to eat. Whether a person gathered a lot or a little, everyone in the household had just enough when they measured out how much had been gathered (vs. 17). Manna only came six days of the week with enough on the sixth day to last for two days, giving them a chance to rest on the Sabbath (vs. 29). If they kept manna overnight it was filled with maggots in the morning but what ever they picked on the sixth day remained fresh on the Sabbath so they had food to eat (vs. 24). At God’s command, they kept some of the manna in a two-quart container which stayed fresh as a memento for many generations after their time in the desert (vs. 32). Without fail manna showed up for 40 years, even as they moved from place to place in the desert until they reached the borders of the Promised Land (vs. 35).

Getting manna first thing in the morning had become such a mundane part of their existence that after a very short period, they were no longer filled with awe and wonder. They forgot about what a miracle manna itself was and started to complain so bitterly:

Meanwhile, the rabble among them had a strong craving for other food, and again the Israelites wept and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish we ate freely in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone; there is nothing to see but this manna!”

Numbers 11:4-6 BSB

It appears every time they complained or were dissatisfied with their lives, they had forgotten that earlier that morning they had experienced a miracle: the miracle of manna. As I read through these scripture, I realized that in many ways my life is no different. There are days where I clearly see God’s hands at work in my life and in the lives of people around me in mighty miraculous ways. But for most days, life is just same old same old. The rhythms of my life are routine and somewhat mundane. And yet God continues to work what I call “the daily manna” miracles- the miracles in the mundane. These miracles are not loud or jaw-dropping; they do not come with the pomp of the partings of the Red Sea. They are the quiet constant miracles that have become so common place that I fail to see them and more often fail to be thankful for them. One such miracle is found in this reassuring scripture:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV

God’s steadfast love for me and His tender mercies towards me are renewed every morning. Just like the manna in the desert, God’s loving devotion and compassion is never stale over my life. They are released fresh every morning to help me tackle everything that comes my way. However, up until typing this post I have never given it much thought. Perhaps if I had, I would complain less and be more thankful and more aware of God’s daily blessing of love and mercy. And friends, there are so many more of these “daily manna” miracles God bestows on us each morning and throughout our day. For example, Psalm 3:5 reminds us “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.” Even waking up from sleep is a miracle!

Friends, I end this post with some questions and poem for reflection: Are you attune to the miracles in the mundane of life or have they become so common place that you are no longer left in awe and wonder? Will you open your eyes and your heart to see the areas where God is actively at work in the rhythms of your life?

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes—
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barrett Browing

Yours Truly.

P.s. If you want to find reasons to be grateful and thankful to God today read Psalm 107.

Posted on by intentional4christ

Give us this day our daily bread

Manna. The bible describes manna as a white flaky substance that looked like coriander seeds, and tasted like wafers made with honey. Manna was the heavenly food that God provided for the Israelites during their forty-year sojourn through the wilderness. God spoke manna into being, and for 6 days/week, this food from heaven never failed to appear with the morning dew. Manna sustained the Israelites for decades, providing them with all the nutrition they needed on their pilgrimage to Canaan, their promised land.

Manna was physical evidence of the word of God that was manifest daily for the Israelites. They literally lived and survived on the words that had proceeded from the mouth of God- fresh manna almost every morning. That was the lesson of manna for the Israelites: that their daily survival depended on God’s word being activated as physical food (manna) to feed them.

Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 

Deuteronomy 8:3 NLT

You see, in the desert, God cautioned the Israelites not to save manna overnight but to expect a new batch everyday (except for day 6 where they would have to take extra to account for not working on the sabbath). Those who did not believe God’s word stocked up and the next day the manna became maggot-ridden. Those who also went out to gather manna on the sabbath were sorely disappointed. The Israelites had to rely on the very word that came out of the mouth of God. Any deviation from those words led to epic disappointments in their daily sustenance.

Fast-forward to the New Testament and we see Jesus teaching the disciples to pray. He taught them to pray thus:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.

Matthew 6: 9-11 NLT

This statement would have resonated with the disciples who would have been familiar with the story of their ancestors eating manna in the desert. Jesus was teaching the disciples that just as the Israelites depended on God then for their daily bread (manna), so were they to depend on God for their daily sustenance. Manna was not about physical food only; it was about learning to trust in the word of God as what sustains life.

When we pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” we should not only be concerned about our physical and material needs. We need to be asking God for his life giving word, our manna, for the day. We ought to be praying, “God, what word do I need to survive the day?” We should be connecting to the source of life, which is the word of God. Jesus reminds us that the words he spoke (and continues to speak over us) are spirit and they are life (John 6:63 KJV).

So instead of only making a barrage of requests to God to meet our physical and material needs, would you consider thinking of your daily bread as a life-sustaining word from God? If so, then next time when you pray, ask God to give you a word for the day: one that would not only nourish your body but will also feed your soul. Perhaps you might want to pray:

My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!

Psalm 119:25 ESV

Now lets take this a little deeper. John 1:1 tells us in no uncertain terms that Jesus is the word of God personified. And if Jesus is God’s word, then He is the manna I have been talking about so far. Jesus is the life sustaining word we need on a daily basis. Jesus Himself confirmed this to over 5000 people who had just witnessed Him perform an epic miracle of providing food for them. They said:

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 

John 6:31-35 NIV

Jesus is our Manna and our daily bread. So when Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray “give us today our daily bread,” He was essentially saying to them just ask for more of him. Earlier I challenged you to pray for a word from God everyday. Well, if you are unsure how to pray for this, then just pray for more of Jesus everyday. He is the word of God, and your daily bread of life.

I encourage you to pray “give us our daily bread” every day throughout the month of March and see how God answers that prayer. I can guarantee that you notice a difference in your month: You will experience more of Jesus!

Yours truly.