Daily

When I go out each morning to start my day and feed my animals, I often view it as just routine. However, my cats, dogs, and chickens view it as the time during the day when they will receive the sustenance they need to go about their daily routines. 

The cats wait for me in the barn. One dog brings his own bowl for me to fill. The red rooster follows me until he gets his corn. The daily routine is essential, and even exciting, to them because they know I will provide them with what they need. 

If I opened my eyes in the morning and focused on the Lord’s provision in the daily, how different would my routine tasks appear?

As a pastor’s wife, I spend a lot of time encouraging people who are experiencing crises. 

This leads me into the mistaken assumption that the promises and provision of God are for emergency times, and that daily life is completely manageable without them.

However, when the daily routine becomes monotonous or heavy, I am thankful that the Lord points out my mistake, reminding me that His promises are for daily life too.

In Egypt, when the Israelites were slaves, they had to meet certain daily quotas for the bricks they were making. When Pharaoh took away the provision of straw they used to make the bricks, the Israelites groaned under the daily burden of having the same daily quota but more work to meet it. 

“The taskmasters were urgent, saying, ‘Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.’”

When the Lord brought His people out of Egypt, He reversed the burden of this daily task. He multiplied what they were able to do in a day to give them the gift of the Sabbath rest.

“On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

The Lord multiplied the results of their daily work to provide for their needs.

The taskmasters of sin, resentment, and laziness just add to our daily burdens, but resting in the Lord’s provision multiplies our work and effectiveness.

The Psalmist must have noticed this too, for he wrote, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up…”

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He taught them to ask for their simple daily needs: “Give us this day our daily bread…”

He knew we would need His help on the daily.

In addition to prayer, He gave us the recipe for following Him in the day-to-day: “Deny yourself and take up your cross daily.”

God’s word and promises are as fresh and applicable to each new day as His mercies are new every morning.

It will be on one of these routine days that He returns, and if we have been in the practice of relying on Him to provide what we need daily, then we will be ready when He multiplies that to be what we need eternally.