Heidelberg Catechism Question 1:

1. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
   • That I am not my own, but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

Phoebe looks at me sometimes and I just want to eat her up. She is so adorable and has the longest eyelashes you have ever seen. Seriously… I have to trim them or they get too long. But to get to my point, she looks at me like her life depended on it. And in reality, it does. She is completely dependent on me for her food, cleanliness, safety, security, environment, everything. There is nothing that she needs that she can do for herself. She trusts me to care for her and to be the provider of all good things.

But she doesn’t. She doesn’t trust me to protect her. She thinks it is her job to alert me to every potential evil… like cardboard boxes, and mailmen, and the wind rattling the screen door, and, heaven forbid, the occasional visitor. She barks and barks and barks. Why doesn’t she trust me? I don’t know. I’m still figuring that one out, but it has made me think about my own trust issues. There is One upon whom I am completely dependent, for my food, cleanliness, safety, security, environment and everything else. He is Abba, Sovereign Creator and Sustainer. All good things come from Him. He knows what is best for me and for those that I care about. Why do I get stressed and frustrated and worked up into a frenzy because of the circumstances around me?

Father God, the better I know you, the more I will trust your protection and guidance. Help me not act out of fear and confusion but to settle into a place of trust and wisdom.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust.” Psalm 56: 3-4

Our society values productivity, independence and occupation. We see it in how we greet one another:

“How are you doing?”   “Busy!” or even “Crazy busy!”

That is the norm, the expected. This is a conversation starter. But it is more than that. It is an indicator of what we look to for our identity and worth.

But there will come a point in time in everyone’s life when “doing” stops, maybe sooner, maybe later, maybe for just a short stint or a long while. But one day we will have to be quiet with ourselves. When we are still and quiet, where does our mind go?

Past regrets? Future anxieties?

Who are we in the quiet when we don’t put on the mask for others?

Who are we when our productivity dwindles? Is our identity rooted in what we have been “doing?”

Where do we go?

May we, like Simon Peter, say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Go to the Word, where we find the precious promises of God. If we are rooted and grounded in our identity as blood-bought children, beloved of our Father God, we can rest. And like Jean Sophia Pigott, the hymn writer who was born in Ireland during the Great Famine:

Jesus! I am resting, resting

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.

We can trust.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,

I behold Thee as Thou art,

And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,

 Satisfies my heart,

Satisfies its deepest longings,

Meets, supplies its every need,

Compasseth me round with blessings,

 Thine is love indeed.

We can know that our situation and our worth don’t depend on career, vocation, relationships, acquisitions, productivity, physical prowess or beauty or any of the things we run to, the things that the world around us tells us will give us worth. But rather, when we discard the worthless rags of our own working and doing and are clothed in Christ’s work and righteousness, our Abba Father, Daddy God, looks at us as the apple of His eye and says, “This is my child, whom I love.”

And that is enough.

In Exodus 16 the people of God grumbled against Him. They were tired. They were hungry. They were confused. The were in the Wilderness of Sin. They didn’t understand what God was doing in their lives. And so they complained.

God listened. He always does.

God gave. He always does.

God asked for obedience. He always does.

And in the obedience is the blessing.

“Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day” Exodus 16:4

We know that God always hears when our hearts are heavy and we cry to him in faith, but he hears when we cry to him out of selfishness and sin and a complaining heart too.  And he often responds with a command.

Go out: Get out of yourself. Look up, look out, get out of the Incurvatus En Si mode.

Gather a day’s portion: Just do it for today. Tomorrow’s problems will be enough of their own.

Every day: You won’t be sustained by yesterday’s portion. You must gather every day.
“This is what the Lord has commanded: Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat.” Exodus 16:16

Gather of it. It is a command. It is active.

Each one of you. God provides and nourishes all of us individually through different means whether it is in corporate worship, online sermons, a podcast, YouTube, a blog (even this one), but nothing substitutes for interacting individually with God’s Word. Gather for yourself.

As much as you can eat. It doesn’t have to be chapters on end, it doesn’t mean hours of study. It is just as much as you can do. But make it the Word and not what someone else says about the Word.