adminPastor Ocean Hamandishe
MATHEW 6:9 reads: “This, then, is how you should pray:”’Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread,” (NIV).
Challenges and tough times were there before and they shall remain as long as this earth exists. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” John 16 vs33.
Through the power of Christ, his finished work of the cross, there are ways of overcoming challenges somehow and somewhere along the journey of life.
They come in various ways, in some cases it requires spiritual warfare, and in other cases it requires application of (knowledge and) wisdom. There are problems that need to be dealt with spiritually while others require practical measures.
You can agree with me that our nation is experiencing its share of tough times as far as the daily survival is concerned. However, I would like to draw a lesson that can be relevant to our times and season .We can learn it from Exodus 16:4 then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.
The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. . . ” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him.
Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” 8 Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord,” (NIV).
Despite that the Children of Israel were in slavery, they were eating to their fill .The bible tells us that they were used to eat whatever they want, may be three to four meals per day with different course meals, which was reason for their complaining.
(Ex 16:2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” NIV
God was taking them from slavery to the Promised Land. To move to the Promised Land they were supposed to adjust. Wilderness life was not pleasant to the community of Israel though it was temporal; they had to endure in-order to pass through. A wilderness season requires one to focus on needs than wants, to separate luxury and the basics. This is what God did to the Children of Israel; he provided them with daily needs as they went. God taught them to live one — day at a time.
He taught them to adjust from many meals to two meals a day. They ate manna in the morning and Quails in the evening. Ex 16:13 That evening quails came and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?”, for they did not know it. (NIV)
The two meals were Breakfast and Supper only, no lunch was served. Manna dissolved or melted as soon as the day became hot. God could not let them have leftovers. He wanted them to eat what was enough for each day, nothing more, nothing less and not allowing them to waste. When they first received manna, they could not know what it was. They asked each other “What is this”, hence the word Manna means “what is this”. True it was a corn from heaven, that was angels `s food (Ps 78vs 24-25) but to them it was something new in their eyes.
God understands seasons and times more than us his children. Our heavenly father understands the difference between the needs and wants. He understands the difference between luxury and the basics. It is wisdom to any parent or individual to read times and seasons of difficulties in-order to apply principles and make adjustments that can help him to survive in any particular season.
God is the author of all life principles; hence anything good done here on earth is learned from him. God taught the Children of Israel to live each day at a time during their transit to the Promised Land. God is the God of all knowledge, full of wisdom, spiritual as well as practical.
What is the lesson here? In tough times such as financial (wilderness) crisis, drought and economic challenges people need to adjust. You do not need to buy or cook more than you need and waste. God could not allow Israel to store manna for the next day. It was possible for the God Almighty to allow manna to stay longer but He wanted to constantly remind them that they were in transit, and should manage their daily bread well.
He wanted them to focus on the journey and the Promised Land while providing them for each day. It took them forty years to come out of wilderness instead of the intended 40 days due to disobedience. Similarly when you are in crisis, challenges, and problems you need to listen and obey spiritual advice or practical advice in-order to quickly come out of your wilderness. Sometimes the lengths of your stay in a situation is determined by you, hence a need to take advice and obey certain rules & Principles.
People need to accept reality and adjust while believing God for their (Canaan) future. For instance when you are sick, you don’t deny that you are sick but you believe God for your healing or believe for a solution. Faith does not deny a problem. Faith applies solution even if the situation seems impossible.
In order to apply a solution you must see the need first. Some people cannot simply accept situations they encounter in their lives. Denial cannot change the reality on the ground, accepting will quickly make you find a solution.
Others cannot adjust from their regular meals or ballooned budgets. May be one was taking four meals a day, that is early breakfast, mid-morning break-fast, lunch, then supper. In difficult times it requires one to adjust, maybe to two meals per day.
That is breakfast and supper. No-one will die for skipping lunch or skipping early breakfast and take breakfast cum-lunch then supper. No-one can die by taking vegetables and miss meat. Our lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray such a prayer of trust to depend upon him each day thus the bible says “Give us each day our daily bread”.
This was a thought projected from wilderness life where Israel received their daily bread .God would rain manna each morning and quails in the evening as their daily bread (provision), two meals per day.
It is important to learn from God how he handled things. In as much as we look forward to our promised land or our prosperity as individuals, family and as a Nation, let us adjust into saving and adapt to the situation until we are out of it. Its not lack of faith to adjust but it is wisdom.
Do not live a life that is beyond your limits. Lack does not necessarily mean that you are out of God’s presence. The Children of Israel after complaining about wilderness life they could lift-up their eyes and see the cloud of his presence and pillar of fire by night. .
Ex 13 vs. 21-22 & 16 vs. 10. That was an assurance that God was still with them despite their difficulties in the wilderness journey. God even preserved their shoes so that they could not go out of their budget by making repairs. For forty years their saddles remain intact.
In hard times we need to believe God to sustain us each day, to preserve what we have, especially in an economic where there is no money. For instance, if your shoe or your child `s school shoe is torn or ware out, you are forced to repair it yet that money should give you a meal.
Do not worry much about wilderness type of life, it will come to pass, Jesus said in Mathew 6vs 25 So I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about food or drink, or about clothing for your body.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than its clothing? 26 See the birds of heaven; they do not put seeds in the earth, they do not get in grain, or put it in store-houses; and your Father in heaven gives them food. Are you not of much more value than they? 27 And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself a cubit taller?
Philippians 4:6: Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
God promised to keep you. I saw an inscription on a wall hang in a certain house that says “Hard Times never Kill”, If someone chose to encourage himself with such a statement, How much more the word of God that gives us assurance.
Therefore, as you go through your wilderness, do not waste, buy or cook more than necessary. (Torai Zvinokuringana, not kurasa chikafu).Live each day trusting God on your daily provision while sticking to your routine work.
Adjust & adapt to avoid over burdening yourself. Have hope for the future; believe God for your (Canaan) prosperity. Pray for your provision than worrying or complaining.
May God, provide, protect and keep you.
Pastor Ocean Hamandishe is an entrepreneur & Senior Pastor of Christian Walk Ministries. He oversees Churches in Zimbabwe & Mozambique. He holds a Diploma, BA in Theology and Masters of Christian Counselling. He Can be contacted on +263 -772 602 471/ or [email protected] pastorocean@Apostolic Word Foundations (knowledge series)
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