September 3, 2021
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OK, I'll confess. I can drive by the candy store. I can drive by the ice cream shop. I can pass up the pizza place, but it's very hard for me not to stop at the bakery. Yeah, bakeries are my weakness, and it's a good thing I don't work in one - I'd weigh 500 pounds I think. Now most bakeries have this discount stuff, you know, in a corner; it's like the day old baked goods. Oh it's cheaper, but there's a reason. There's a big difference between day-old and fresh baked. That line at the bakery early in the morning; no, that's not for yesterday's goodies, let me tell you. Those folks are there to get the doughnuts or the bread that just came out of the oven. And I might just be at the head of the line.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fresh Each Day."
Getting it fresh-that's not only a good idea at the bakery, but also when it comes to picking up your provisions from heaven, too. God's got new resources for you each new day; mercies that are according to the Bible, "new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23). The reason so many of us are spiritually up and down, lacking the power we need, the strength we need, constantly being overwhelmed by the day's events? The reason is that we aren't stopping at God's "bakery" each morning to pick up that day's "bread."
God gives us an enlightening picture of how to stay spiritually strong in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Exodus 16, beginning in verse 4, and it records God's delivery system for feeding His people as they wandered in the desert. Here's our word for today from the Word of God: "'I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day' ... So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites ... 'In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord.'"
Through Moses, the Lord went on to command His people not to store any of His manna overnight. "However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning" - it's a very bad idea! - "but it was full of maggots and began to smell" (let me tell you, that's day-old at its worst!). But God's plan worked. The Bible says, "Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed."
That's been God's plan ever since; that each of His children would gather each morning all the spiritual resources he or she needs for that day. Speaking of Himself, Jesus said, "The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" (John 6:33). Each day, we're to get a fresh helping of Jesus: His thinking, His perspective, His strength, His outlook. And that means consistent time with Him, through His love letter, the Bible, each new day.
You can't store up the resources to live the Christ-life anymore than the ancient Jews could store up manna. You can't let your personal Jesus-time be something you do occasionally or when you feel like it or when you can fit Him into your busy schedule. Make your daily time with Jesus Christ non-negotiable. Everything else is going to have to revolve around your time with Him instead of what usually happens, your time with Him, you know, having to revolve around everything else.
If you'll anchor your day to a personal time with Jesus Christ, you'll start to experience a realness, a closeness, a consistency, a victory in your relationship with Him that you've always wanted but maybe never had. You need to hear from heaven each day if you're going to live for heaven while you're on earth. And day-old or week-old stuff just won't cut it for this new day. You need what Jesus has prepared for you fresh each day!