Enough For Today

The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.

— Exodus 16:4 (NIV)

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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)

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The day’s portion in its day: Such was the rule for God’s giving and man’s working in the ingathering of the manna. It is still the law in all the dealings of God’s grace with His children. A clear insight into the beauty and application of this arrangement is a wonderful help in understanding how one, who feels himself utterly weak, can have the confidence and the perseverance to hold on brightly through all the years of his earthly course.

A doctor was once asked by a patient who had met with a serious accident: ‘Doctor, how long shall I have to lie here?’ The answer, ‘Only a day at a time,’ taught the patient a precious lesson. It was the same lesson God had recorded for His people of all ages long before: The day’s portion in its day.

It was, without a doubt, with a view to this, and to meet man’s weakness, that God graciously appointed the change of day and night. If time had been given to man in the form of one long unbroken day, it would have exhausted and overwhelmed him; the change of day and night continually recruits and recreates his powers. As a child, who easily makes himself master of a book, when each day only the lesson for the day is given him, would be utterly hopeless if the whole book were given him at once; so it would be with man, if there were no divisions in time. Broken small and divided into fragments, he can bear them; only the care and the work of each day have to be undertaken, — the day’s portion in its day.

The rest of the night fits him for making a fresh start with each new morning; the mistakes of the past can be avoided, its lessons improved. And he has only each day to be faithful for the one short day, and long years and a long life take care of themselves, without the sense of their length or their weight ever being a burden.

Most sweet is the encouragement to be derived from this truth in the life of grace. Many a soul is disquieted with the thought as to how it will be able to gather and to keep the manna needed for all its years of travel through such a barren wilderness. It has never learnt what unspeakable comfort there is in the word: The day’s portion for its day. That word takes away all care for the morrow most completely. Only today is thine; tomorrow is the Father’s.

The question: What security thou hast that during all the year in which thou hast to contend with the coldness, or temptations, or trials of the world, thou wilt always abide in Jesus? is one thou neediest, yea, thou mayest not ask. Manna, as thy food and strength, is given only by the day; faithfully to fill the present is thy only security for the future. Accept, and enjoy, and fulfill with thy whole heart the part thou hast this day to perform. His presence and grace enjoyed today will remove all doubt whether thou canst entrust the morrow to Him too…

God has gathered up the moments and bound them up into a bundle, for the very purpose that we might take measure of them. As we look forward in the morning, or look back in the evening, and weigh the moments, we learn how to value and how to use them rightly.

And even as the Father, with each new morning, meets you with the promise of just sufficient manna for the day for yourself…, meet Him with the bright and loving renewal of your acceptance of the position He has given you in His beloved Son. Accustom yourself to look upon this as one of the reasons for the appointment of day and night. God thought of our weakness, and sought to provide for it. Let each day have its value from your calling to abide in Christ. As its light opens on your waking eyes, accept it on these terms: A day, just one day only, but still day, given to abide and grow up in Jesus Christ.

Whether it be a day of health or sickness, joy or sorrow, rest or work, of struggle or victory, let the chief thought with which you receive it in the morning thanksgiving be this: ‘A day that the Father gave; in it I may, I must become more closely united to Jesus.’ As the Father asks, ‘Can you trust me just for this one day to keep you abiding in Jesus, and Jesus to keep you fruitful?’ you cannot but give the joyful response: ‘I will trust and not be afraid.’

The day’s portion for its day was given to Israel in the morning very early. The portion was for use and nourishment during the whole day, but the giving and the getting of it was the morning’s work. This suggests how greatly the power to spend a day aright, to abide all day in Jesus, depends on the morning hour. If the first-fruits be holy, the lump is holy.

During the day there come hours of intense occupation in the rush of business or the throng of men, when only the Father’s keeping can maintain the connection with Jesus unbroken. The morning manna fed all day; it is only when the believer in the morning secures his quiet time in secret to distinctly and effectually renew loving fellowship with his Saviour, that the abiding can be kept up all the day. But what cause for thanksgiving that it may be done! In the morning, with its freshness and quiet, the believer can look out upon the day. He can consider its duties and its temptations, and pass them through beforehand, as it were, with his Saviour, throwing all upon Him who has undertaken to be everything to him.

Christ is his manna, his nourishment, his strength, his life: he can take the day’s portion for the day, Christ as his for all the needs the day may bring, and go on in the assurance that the day will be one of blessing and growth. And then, as the lesson of the value and the work of the single day is being taken to heart, the learner is all unconsciously being led on to get the secret of ‘day by day continually.’ (Exodus 29:38).

The blessed abiding grasped by faith for each day apart is an unceasing and ever-increasing growth. Each day of faithfulness brings a blessing for the next; makes both the trust and the surrender easier and more blessed. And so the Christian life grows; as we give our whole heart to the work of each day, it becomes all the day, and from that every day. And so each day separately, all the days continually, day by day successively, we abide in Jesus.

And the days make up the life: what once appeared too high and too great to attain, is given to the soul that was content to take and use ‘every day his portion’ (Ezra 3:4)., ‘as the duty of every day required.’ Even here on earth the voice is heard: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over few, I will make thee ruler over many: enter thou into the joy of the Lord.’

Our daily life becomes a wonderful interchange of God’s daily grace and our daily praise: ‘Daily He loath us with His benefits;’ ‘that I may daily perform my vows.’ We learn to understand God’s reason for daily giving, as He most certainly gives, only enough, but also fully enough, for each day. And we get into His way, the way of daily asking and expecting only enough, but most certainly fully enough, for the day.

We begin to number our days not from the sun’s rising over the world, nor by the work we do or the food we eat, but by the daily renewal of the miracle of the manna, — the blessedness of daily fellowship with Him who is the Life and the Light of the world. The heavenly life is as unbroken and continuous as the earthly; the abiding in Christ each day has for that day brought its blessing; we abide in Him every day, and all the day. Lord, make this the portion of each one of us.

-Andrew Murray, ‘Abide in Christ’ - p.99-105

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O, beloved!

Do you know how much comfort this brings? We only have ‘to be faithful for one short day, and the long years and a long life take care of themselves?’ And ‘without the sense of their length or their weight ever being a burden?’ O, beloved! What comfort! What consolation! What joy!

So much of the fear and the despair come in when all the rest of our days here seem to stretch on out in front of me like a never-ending road, like this nearly impossible quest for obedience and holiness, of which I’m not qualified to undertake; I’m not up to the task. To see life here that way, beloved…it’s…wearying.

But no! (gentle) We’re only called to abide in Christ today. We’re only called to surrender our wills, our desires today. We’re only called not to grasp, to wait upon Him, our palms extended upward as we anticipate His good gifts, today, beloved. It’s not forever. It’s not for decades, or for years, or even for a week. But only for today. (content sigh) We can do that, can we not? (tender and hopeful)

He knows our weakness. He knows we are too small and too dim-witted to be able to cope with life here as one long, unbroken song. So He graciously breaks time into small, digestible chunks that He knows we can handle, beloved. He lets us practice dying each night and being resurrected each morning. He provides manna, grace sufficient for the day. He feeds us little bites of His Word, just the right size for our small mouths to chew on.

And our daily life then becomes a give and a take, of His giving us grace and us giving Him praise! Like breathing out and breathing in, beloved! And we begin to measure our days, not in terms of hours or minutes or the sun rising or setting, but in terms of our fellowship with Him, our communion with the living God who calls us His beloved children! This very moment, we can praise Him! This very moment, He is giving us grace upon grace! (John 1:16)

And ‘each day of faithfulness brings a blessing for the next, makes both the trust and the surrender easier…’ As we learn and grow and practice, beloved, we’ll get better at this! He’s at work, chiseling away at us! He’s slowly, precisely, forming us into people fit for heaven, beloved! Day by day, He’s doing so! It’s hard for us to see - aye! - because our eyesight isn’t all that great yet, and because we’re standing so close to His work in our hearts that it’s difficult for us to ‘step back’ and view it all from His perspective…but He’s doing it, beloved! He’s fitting us to be with our Beloved Father, our Good King! We’re not ready yet, beloved, but He is dedicated to making us ready - what a gift!

Beloved? (gentle) Let us not think about the many years that may be stretching out before us here on this earth. Let us not feel hopeless and despairing about our own sin and weakness. Let us not dwell on all that we must surrender and live without as we seek to obey Him out of Love. Please?

Instead, may we, Together, think only on this day, the one before us, right here, right now…this one, short little day…and may we seek to abide in Christ as best we know how today? Savoring His Word? Bowing before Him in humble submission? Voicing our concerns to Him in prayer? Entrusting one another to His safekeeping? But only for today. For that is enough.