Is Your Bread Toast?

In Genesis, God charged Adam and Eve that they would toil for their bread all the days of their lives due to their disobedience.

This generational proclamation still applies to us today. Generally, if we want to eat we must toil. Not only does this toil apply to our worldly needs, but also to our spiritual needs. Receiving our salvation requires a decision from us. Maintaining a relationship with God requires prayer, worship and studying his word. Also, the Great Commission, "tell all the world The Good News", requires that we toil. However, God is good as well as just.

In Exodus we see that God does provide our daily bread without toil. When the House of Israel wandered in the desert, they were fed directly from the hand of God in the form of manna. This manna represented God's willingness to forego his proclamation to Adam out of mercy and love.
The manna was provided to the people for natural or worldly sustenance as well as spiritual sustenance.

In our Christian walk, we seldom have trouble discussing, revealing or sharing our toil and efforts in obtaining our bread. Whether worldly or spiritual, we feel an ease relating our toil and struggles. So too, we feel an ease in hearing about other peoples' testimonies about their toils for their worldly or spiritual bread. But, we do seem to have a problem revealing or receiving the worldly or spiritual manna from God's own hand.

God, supernaturally provided me with a house. The house I live in did not come from my own hands nor my own toil, yet when I relate this miracle to others, it is hard for them to accept. Spiritually, I received from God a revelation about the importance of forgiveness. I was not searching for the meaning or application of forgiveness. I was hurting and felt justified in my pain. I did not seek to forgive - I wanted justification. Instead God opened up the whole circle of forgiveness and how it works so I could heal properly.

When we share our 'manna' experiences with others, we are casting our bread upon the waters. We are showing others that although God is a just god, he is also loving and merciful. Sharing your testimony and receiving others' testimony brings God's Spirit into the world, and we sorely need His Spirit here.

"But Jesus, aware of this, said, "O men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? " Matthew 16:8 RSV

We must recognize the manna in our lives and share it with others.