Hello, how are you, g’day and welcome to you! This post is part of a series I’m working my way through in the month of October, called Swim Your Own Race. If you’d like to start at the beginning (it is a very good place to start, after all) you can do so, right here. You can find a link to all the posts in this series on the first page. I hope you enjoy diving in!
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At present, I’m slowly swimming toward the end of a season that has been a bit of a challenge for me. When my Dad passed away, there were two other estates in my family that also needed to be settled in order to settle his. This meant opening three bank accounts, dealing with three sets of assets and researching three sets of liabilities. Looking at how tax liabilities differed based on when each family member passed away, paying three sets of bills to our lawyer and so on.
Today, I’ll be signing the paperwork that will mean the second of those three estates can be closed. (Two down, one to go…) This morning, as I reflected on the challenges I’ve faced in walking through this process, I couldn’t help but consider God’s faithfulness throughout this process.
As I faced the challenge of working my way through getting things done, there were a few times when I hit a wall and just felt I couldn’t keep going. It just felt too challenging to put this task on top of the rest of the things that make up my life.
But somehow, the Lord met me at every bend in the road. I breathed a deep breath, maybe hit the pause button for a day or two, and then carried on.
It has felt a bit like wandering in the wilderness at times, but in a wilderness authored by God, there is always bread.
When God appointed a season for the Israelites to wander in the desert, because of their unwillingness to follow His leading and take the land He promised them, He brought them out to bring something into them. He pulled them away from the distractions and duties of normal life to show them something about His character and His faithfulness.
He didn’t let them faint, even in the desert — a place where life struggles to survive without some serious adaptation. He gave them water to drink, and each day, He made manna fall from heaven so that they would have food to eat.
This daily bread from heaven, which they gathered six days a week (since they gathered double the day before the Sabbath) for forty years, was probably a little bit humbling for them to receive. It might’ve tasted sweet and been a good filling meal, but having it day after day and year after year eventually frustrated them and caused them to get angry with God. They didn’t want to continue wandering in the desert, they didn’t want to keep eating manna. But they hadn’t yet learned the incredible faithfulness and incomparable holiness of the God that chose them to be His people.
It was hard to be humble and to just keep being faithful.
We don’t always value faithfulness these days. We certainly don’t want to eat the same thing every day, wear the same thing or do the same thing. We like change and new tastes and new places and new experiences. We redecorate as the seasons change and look forward to out with the old and in with the new.
But there are so many lessons for us, so much we can learn, so many ways we can be stretched and our faith strengthened, in seasons where we aren’t called to the new and different and exciting and amazing — we are just called to be faithful.
It’s humbling to just keep being faithful.
I felt I was nearly on the verge of a breaking point (again) about a week ago. Then I received a phone call that I could go sign the paperwork to close the first estate.
God knew what I needed and when I needed it and at every turn in this nineteen-month journey, He has given me the bread I needed to keep going.
Our challenge to trust God through every circumstance we might face in our lives is a challenge to trust His faithfulness to give us our daily bread. Why is it daily bread? Why don’t I give my children seven days worth of breakfast on Monday morning? I’m pretty sure they couldn’t ration their breakfast enough to make it to Thursday.
Why doesn’t God give us everything we want right now? Because He cares about us, and knows best how to give us what we need when we need it.
These words have been a source of encouragement to my soul for many years now:
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart. {Psalm 37: 3-4, NKJV}
How about this instruction to feed on His faithfulness? Remembering, enjoying, savoring and giving thanks for the faithfulness of God — this is very good nourishment, food for our souls. We delight in Him when we think about His goodness, rejoice that He is good, and enjoy entering His presence with praise and thanksgiving. And as we trust that He is good, and we drink deeply of the well of His faithfulness, so He meets us and gives us the desires of our heart when He sees that the timing is right.
Perhaps you’re in a wilderness now. In the race you’re swimming, you feel humbled by what your life requires of you. It is hard to be faithful when you can’t see any change on the horizon. But God cares more about the character He is forming in us than about just making us happy. Your faith can be proved and improved in the wilderness like no where else.
Be encouraged there, and keep your eyes wide open. You will see God’s faithfulness, even in the driest of deserts.
In a wilderness authored by God, there is always bread.
xCC
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