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Read: Exodus 16:1-30            Small Things


   When God rained bread from heaven for the people of Israel in the wilderness, they looked at it and asked, ‘what is it?’ i.e. “Manna. From that time on they referred to the miraculous provision of God as “Manna”. The reason God had decided to give them food in the wilderness was more than just for sustenance. He wanted to test them, to see if they would be obedient to His instructions. “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.”Ex.16:4 God gave them
specific instructions as to when the Manna was to be collected and how much etc.

   God had promised the people that He was taking them into a land of abundance. “When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth” Judges 18:10  However, He had to ready His people to be able to receive the abundance. They seemed to be still filled with their past. God needed to take their past out of them in order that they could receive their future. 

   God’s plan is to bring us into a place of abundance.  He sometimes put us through a journey of removing from us our dependence on other things so as to focus our dependence on Him. He must bring us to a place where we can receive. He did this with Israel. Yet, during this process we must continue to remain thankful and not despise small beginnings. “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Zech.4:10
   
   The Manna was a little seed. Before God can entrust us with much He needs to see what we do with a little. Jesus spoke a parable of a nobleman who gave a pound to each of his ten servants and went away on a journey. When the nobleman returned he called his servants and asked them what they had done with his money. One of the servants had gained ten pounds. The pleased nobleman said, “Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” Luke 19:17 To  another who had been lazy and hidden the pound the master said, "Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him”. Luke 19:25, 26 
   
   God has blessed every one of us with ‘something’ which will lead us into our destiny. The thing God has entrusted to us might not look anything like what we have believed for, but it certainly is the means to it. How we treat what God has given to us in this season of our life will determine what He will give to us when we come out of this season. How well we follow instructions, will determine whether we will receive what He has ‘kept’ for us. When we are faithful with what God has given us, He will be faithful to entrust us more!

   Sometimes, our minds need to be renewed in order to see what God has given to us. We may have given up because of the weariness of waiting or have wrong expectations. We see this in the conversation between Philip and Nathaniel. When Philip told him they had found the Messiah, Nathaniel responded, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? John 1:46 Philip invited him to “Come and see.” If, Nathaniel had not listened to Philip and gone and seen, he would not have met Jesus. We can miss the means to our blessing just because it didn’t come in the packaging we hoped for. You might be looking straight at it today and still asking “what is it?” Receive what God has entrusted in your hands and be faithful to the instructions God will give you. Each step of obedience will lead you into your “Promised Land”.