14 February

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Are you worrying about the future – your health, your job, your family or your finances? Make a decision today not to worry. ‘When we worry about tomorrow,’ writes Joyce Meyer, ‘we waste today. Trust God and learn to live one day at a time.’

God promises his provision for their material needs. He promises to rain down ‘bread from heaven’ (16:4a) called ‘manna’ (v.31). Each day he provides them with all they need in terms of their ‘daily bread’. Each one gathered as much as they needed (vv.18c,21a). But they were told not to store it up for the future: ‘No one is to keep any of it until morning’ (v.19).

This is something that we have experienced as a church community over the years. God supplies all our material needs but he does not give us more than we need. We do not store up reserves for the future, rather we trust God constantly that he will provide month by month and year by year.

It is always a temptation to want to store up everything we receive as security for the future – rather than trusting God to provide what we need when we need it. This also applies to our spiritual needs – we cannot just rely on past blessings.

Jesus himself tells us that he is the ultimate provision of God. He says, ‘I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which people may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world’ (John 6:48–51).