Manna in the Morning

Have you ever heard the expression, “She’s got a bee in her bonnet?” Or, you might have heard a similar one, “He’s got a burr under his saddle.” Both indicate that the person being referred to is particularly upset about something. Author Max Lucado tells about his boyhood days of playing football out in the West Texas fields. The fields where Max and his friends played were full of grass burrs that stuck in their skin. Sometimes, after a big tackle, a player would have a leg or arm full of grass burrs. They stung horribly. The game came to a stop while the player pulled out each of the burrs. Some players wanted to keep on playing in spite of the burrs, but it was usually too painful. Lucado trusted no one but his father to pull out his burrs. So, he would leave the game, go home, and get his father to pull out every last burr, then he would return to the game. Friends, there are some burrs that only our Father in heaven can remove. Fortunately, God will remove them if we trust ourselves to Him. The Bible urges us to “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (I Peter 5:7)

We are all guilty of putting emphasis on wrong things from time to time. I remember a statement made by a professor of mine: “Only that which is eternal is really important.” I know in my heart that that is true but it is difficult sometimes not considering of real importance deadlines in my job or commitments to other people or hoeing the weeds in the garden and remembering to take out the trash. But, it is true that we often forget what is most important. As far as we know, no bird ever tried to build more nests than his neighbor. No fox ever fretted because he had only one hole in the earth in which to live and hide. No squirrel ever died in anxiety lest he should not lay up enough nuts for two winters instead of one. And no dog ever lost sleep over the fact that he did not have enough bones buried in the ground for his declining years. We need to keep in mind what Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Both Jesus and Paul tell us about the problem of anxiety. Jesus preached that we are not to "worry about tomorrow." (Matt. 6). Paul wrote, "Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. (Phil. 4:6). Robert Burdette wrote, "There are two days in the week upon which and about which I never worry...One of those days is Yesterday, with its cares and frets and pains and aches, all its faults, its mistakes and blunders, has passed forever beyond my recall. It was mine; it is God’s. The other day...is Tomorrow...with all its possible adversities, its burdens, its perils, its large promise and performance, its failures and mistakes, is as far beyond mastery as its dead sister, Yesterday. Tomorrow is God’s day; it will be mine. There is left, then for myself but one day in the week—Today." So we take it ONE DAY AT A TIME! "It isn’t the experience of Today that drives people mad. It is the remorse of what happened Yesterday and fear of what Tomorrow might bring. These are God’s Days...Leave them to God."