Teaching trust takes time
The Exodus story about manna serves as a great comfort at first glance – daily provision of bread; no hunting for it, no waiting, no wondering, just there, every day. Sure, it became bland and repetitious, but at least you could count on it. How good of God to deliver it to people wandering the desert for forty years!
But wait – there was ulterior motive? They could have gotten across the desert faster? Less than 3 weeks to walk it 6 hours a day?! Then who would want 40 years of wheat flakes turned into cakes every day. Now I don’t like this plan, and I want out.
God had a plan to teach his people to trust him. Could that be what God is doing now? Might it be that God is providing for us a place to worship only week by week because he wants us to trust him? Because he is providing. The worship team asked me this week to please give a two-week announcement before we change time or location again. But what if I can’t? What if God is teaching us to trust Him daily, weekly. That seems in character for Him.
Do you have ways you wish God would be providing for you?
Let me ask you this as a deeper question – do you think it’s possible to trust God more than you do right now? Would you like to trust Him more than you do right now?
Trust takes time. We trust another person more and more:
- with each action followed through,
- with each word spoken in kindness,
- with each mistake met with grace.
God wants us to trust him.
In Exodus 13:17 God reveals that He’s not letting his people take the shortcut through the desert. Instead, they’re going the long way in case they get to the Promised Land and don’t trust Him enough to see them through the battles they’ll have to face. Instead, via the long way He sends them daily manna as a test, to see if they’ll walk with Him and trust Him or not (Exodus 16:4).
It feels like we’re in a bit of a wandering, looking for a place we can worship. It definitely feels like we’re showing up each day at the office looking for daily provision. Might it be that God’s writing the same storyline? Might God be forming a people who bear witness to who He is well, and out of their own experience? A people looking for a space to put down roots and learning to trust Him through His daily provision as we make our way? God might just be preparing us for situations we aren’t yet strong enough to work through.
I hope you know that’s true in your own life, too. That God is preparing for himself a people, a people that He can dwell in the midst of, and that He is worthy of your trust.
AND – this week, and for the rest of January, we’ll be worshipping at Coffee Oasis at 807 Bay St at 9:30 and 11:00. Children’s worship happens only at the 11:00 service in the youth space above Coffee Oasis.
See you there! And keep your ears open to how God will provide for us next.
Pastor Megan