Generations at the Table
Trusting God for Daily Provision
What does the future hold? What does it look like for our country? What does it look like for the world? You can trust God for the daily provision for tomorrow when you recognize how faithful He was to you today. Hey, I'm Megan and I wanna welcome you back to Generations at the Table. Thank you so much for pulling up a seat. I wanna jump right in and like, let's talk today about trusting God daily. And I feel like that is a subject that a lot of people talk about, right? I mean, it's just, it is something that we think about, but maybe not something that we actually do or implement. And I have had some fresh revelation on this in my own life recently, and that's why I wanted to talk to you about it. I was reading the Lord's Prayer. And you guys, I know you know what it says, but it's in Matthew six, verses eight through 13, and I won't read the whole thing to you, but basically I was reading the part where it says, give us this day our daily bread. And we know that scripture, right? I'm telling you that, and you're like, what is the revelation in that? And I realized that something just like hit me that it was my job to trust God for the provision that I needed for that day. And the reason it came up is because we were focusing a decision that was not a daily decision. It was a decision that was gonna impact our future. And I told Paul, well, I can see how we have the bandwidth. I can see how we have the provision for this for like six to nine months. We could, you know, manage, navigate this. Like time, finance, the whole thing. But beyond that, I don't know like how is this all gonna work? How are we gonna make all of this, you know, piece together? And this is what we were facing. And then I saw this, give us this day our daily bread. And I told Paul, I said, well, we have the bandwidth for this decision this yesterday. And we even know we have it for tomorrow. And thank you, Lord. I can see that we have it for a couple of months. I was like, I can't see beyond that. But that's not what the word says. The word says to ask the Lord for his daily provision. And I was like, so I think our answer is yes, Lord, we will take the sleep of faith with you, knowing that we have the provision that we need today. And my provision for tomorrow is something I'm gonna have to trust you for tomorrow. And I think that that's hard when you're a planner. And I'm not saying that you need to live in a place of irresponsibility. But what I am saying is that if the Lord is asking you to do something and it is a step of faith, he's asking to trust him today for today. Do you have what you need today? And in this instance, we did see my challenge, my inner turmoil was written in the fact that I couldn't see how we had the bandwidth, the provision for it in like nine, 10 months or a year from now. I was like, I don't know if we'll still be able to say yes in the same capacity, but that's not what the Lord asked. Do you have it for today? Yes. And like I said, I could see, okay, we've got this for more than just today, but I knew that my yes had to be written in God's provision for now. And I think that we are at a place as a society and a culture where there's a lot of fear and anxiety about the future. There is so much unknown, right? And so as we're going into like this holiday season, sometimes it's hard to even meet that from a place of joy because there are so many things that we're just uncertain about that we don't fully understand. And it's like, what does the future hold? What does it look like for our country? What does it look like for the world? What does it look like even for the kingdom of God? And it's like, do you have what you need today to fulfill your call today? And my guess is the answer is yes. So we have to learn to step out without that fully clear plan and say, I'm gonna step out in faith in what God has given me. I think that that's the importance of taking the vision that God gives us like it says in Habakkah, writing it and making it plain. So at the end of the year, we're gonna start talking again about like goals to grow and setting those spiritual goals because when we write that plan that God has given us, then we know that we need the daily provision to move towards those targets. Like what are you really looking for? What attributes are you looking for? And so when we trust God on what we need for today, we are letting go of the uncertainties for tomorrow. And we are saying that I am not going to allow that which I do not know to hinder me from my future, from my destiny. I know I have what I need today and I know this is what your word says and therefore this is what I am going to act on. I'm not going to get stuck because I can't see, you know, beyond that. The other thing that really kind of stuck out to me with this is I don't know how much you follow the Hebrew calendar, but the Hebrew calendar, like in Jewish culture, a day begins at sunset. So the day goes from sunset to sunset, not from sunrise to sunrise. So on Shabbat, for example, it begins on Friday evening and it ends on Saturday evening. And I started thinking about how beautiful of the Lord that was to begin our day in rest, to begin our day from a place where we are winding down and we might be exhausted, but more than likely, hopefully you're like with your family and it's just like you begin in a place of trust. Then you go to sleep. So you begin in this place of complete vulnerability where you can't be taking action to go after those dreams and those visions, you're just totally surrendered and then you end the day in activity. See in our mindset is I gotta get up, I gotta get out the door, I gotta get the coffee, the kids to school, whatever it is, you know, you gotta get to work and it's just like go, go, go. And the day begins immediately based on our ability to perform, our ability to show up. Our, it's fras, I mean, maybe it's not at your house, but at our house, it's like there's so much going on. There's just a lot. It's just, man, our kids all wake up in different moods, you know, like everyone's a little bit different. Arabella is very quiet, like she just needs to like soak it in and it's just like, okay, so I can handle that. Joseph wakes up, he is like the happiest wake up boy and he is like ready to go, he wants to play immediately. Like he's gonna play with me, you wanna play with me? I mean, like from the word go, it's like go to the bathroom and play. Matthew wakes up and he's like a little cranky old man and he's like breakfast, breakfast. Like immediately needs to be fat, like a hungry little dinosaur. And they're just all so different, but you're feeling these demands immediately pulling on you as a mom of like, how do I meet them? But in Jewish culture, that's not how the day starts, that's how the day is like in the middle of the day, the day begins the night before from a place of rest. And I think that the Lord wants to train us to think in the mindset and the rhythm of how his calendar works. Psalm 5, 3 says, "At each and every sunrise, you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning, I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart." Lamentations 3, 22, 23 says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." So we can begin that morning place, even in the chaos from a place of new, but I do believe in that moment that our feet hit the ground, we have to choose to trust God daily for what we need. And you know, that provision can look different in different seasons. It depends on what you're going through. You may be going through like a total high place, but you still need to trust God or you could be going through the lowest low, that valley, but you still need to trust God. So it's choosing that mindset. It's choosing that heart pattern. It's choosing that rhythm of trust. And then it's important to seek God each day, I think, even if you're having a great day, even if you're not. I mean, I find sometimes when things are just going semi-smooth, it's like that's when I fall out of that daily rhythm of really digging into the Word. And then all of a sudden we're needing something, I need a question, I need clarity, there's pressure. It's like, I gotta get, I gotta get in the Word. I gotta hear what you have to say. Well, God wants us to like just spend time with Him and soak in His presence and have a relationship with Him because He knows what's coming before. So so many times if we will create that discipline of getting in the Word ahead of the day, I think He fills us up with what we need before that problem ever surfaces, so that we're not like back-doring it and we're like, oh yeah, I need you to fill me up now because look what I just walked through. He's offering to fill us up from that moment of rest. So if your day is structured, like the new day begins in the evening, you're winding down, you go to sleep, you're trusting in Him and you wake up and the first thing you do is put time with Him and then you go about your actions. Like I think there's such a beautiful rhythm to that. First is what our mind tells us our actions are is that we wake up and it's like immediately chaotic. We go through our rhythm, we come in, we're exhausted. You know, we fall asleep exhausted. Like how can we change how we think about that practice? And then learning to trust God when the future seems uncertain. And this is something I think we've hit on in the last few podcasts, but there is a lot of uncertainty. And so how do we trust Him daily in the midst of uncertainty? And, you know, there are seasons where there are even more, you know, there's just, you have no idea what's gonna happen. Maybe you've got someone, a family member that's sick, that's in the hospital and you really don't know they need a miracle. Maybe you are waiting on something for your job and it's just like it's not coming, it feels delayed, it feels hindered. Those moments are truly moments to learn to trust the Lord daily and to not kind of bite off more than you can chew. You know, I have some friends of ours who are going through a really tough situation. And one of them told me the other day he said, we're just having to take this, you know, a couple days at a time. We can only plan for a couple days at a time because we basically don't know where the situation is headed. And that is not his nature. He's definitely much more of a planner and a forecaster, but even he recognized that they had the trust God daily and then in the natural even, they could only plan their schedule, their life, what was gonna happen for just a couple days at a time, make coverage for a couple days. That can be really hard, especially depending on your personality. But Matthew 634 says, refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way. Deal with it, don't push it on the carpet one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself. That is really hard, but that is like straight truth to our heart, deal with each challenge one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself. I mean, I'm like, hearing myself say that. I'm like, that is so challenging because our goal is, I mean, like in our goal, but our nature is to kind of begin to get ahead of those things. And can it wait? Can't like, sometimes I have to ask myself, can this wait? What is most important? And it's really tough, especially depending, you know, on your personality. My personality type, that is like, oh gosh, that's a challenge. And then aligning your time and your days. So if you're going to trust God daily, how do you align your time with God's prophetic rhythm? Because this is learning to trust in a daily timestamp, right? Like a daily thing. So how do you trust God with your time? How do you align your time? I think there's a couple of ways you can do that. The practice of Shabbat, which we've been talking about quite a bit lately. The Feast of the Lord, which I hope you went through with us in the fall season. And then learning to trust him every day with as a 24 hour window and seeing that you have provisioned for what you need for that day. And, you know, we're going into the holiday season. And I hope that you have this incredible time with your family and your friends and your community. I hope that it's amazing. But I know for me that the holidays can be a little bit of both. A little bit of overwhelm, a little bit of, you know, responsibilities and extra things to do filled with like these moments of sweetness and these moments of joy and these moments of expectation. So my encouragement to you is this is now more than ever as we go into the end of the year. Can you trust God daily? Can you trust him with what you need to meet those, all those daily demands? And there are a lot right now, especially during this season. And then, okay, so what are our actionable steps? You know, how do we do this? Like, I feel like I'm telling you something that you know. You know the word says give us this day our daily bread. You know that his mercies are new every morning. You know that we are supposed to trust him daily, but how? And especially like, why am I bringing you this message right as we're going into the holiday season, right? 'Cause it's like, to me, it's very much can be a season of overwhelm. So is there a way for you to at least begin your day in morning prayer? Like, can you do that? I find that that's so important. Even if you feel like you can't do like a devotional in the morning, if that's your choice, I'm gonna incur, I'm gonna tell you, I think doing devotions in the morning, it's just a minute in the word, even five minutes, 10 minutes is transformational. But if not, can you at least set your heart in the right place? Can you say the Lord's prayer? You know, our father who art and heaven, can you begin that process of surrendering your day and your time to him? And then, can you do something with daily gratitude? And that maybe, you know what? I'm gonna tell you something I've been going through is I've been mentally battling a situation that I just wasn't super happy with. And I don't keep a gratitude journal, full transparency, that's not like I've done that in different seasons, I don't have one right now. But I felt like the Lord said to me, why don't you start keeping a gratitude journal about the good things of this situation instead of just focusing on the bad things? And instead of focusing on what you're dreading, what you're not looking forward to, what you're concerned about, and what is good? What is something that you love? How can you see my face in the midst of this? And that has just been such, it's really shifted my mindset. Has anything changed? No, has the circumstance changed? No, but how I feel about it, I'm able to see the glass half full instead of half empty. But again, that was a choice of me saying, I'm gonna focus on gratitude on this area where I'm clearly struggling with an ingratitude. I'm struggling to feel thankful for this experience. And then, in evening reflection, I once had a goal planning book, a daily book, and it was, I don't even remember what it was called, it was something about daily greatness. But what I loved about it was at the end of the day, you set your kind of, in the morning, you set your tone, but at the end of the day, you would be like, how did the day go? What is something I'm grateful for? What is something that challenged me? I think where we can go, especially as moms, especially as, I don't know what generation you are, but if you're in the millennial generation, you're so busy right now that sometimes, even the ability to reflect seems like it's taken from us because you've got family and kids and work and school, and there's just so much going on. Do you take the time to reflect and see how God was faithful? Because see, I think you can trust God for the daily provision for tomorrow when you recognize how faithful He was to you today. But you can't do that when you're just so busy, you're just zooming through life, you're just zooming from one commitment to the next. So how can you take the time to reflect? So if your day begins in prayer, if you practice gratitude, even in an area where you are not feeling specifically thankful, like I just shared my testimony with you, and then if you take time in the evening to reflect on the faithfulness of God. I know I've talked about this before, but I think it's really important is that during the feasts, we talk about the faithfulness of God, and we gather as a family at Passover, we remember the redemption of the Exodus from Egypt, and then all the God did, even in the wilderness experience, taking them through the promised land. And we talk about God's faithfulness to the Israelites. And then we talk about God's faithfulness to us. Let's talk about how He was faithful to the Marcelinos, and we recount the faithfulness of God. And at Sukkot, we do the same thing. We sit with our family under a Sukkot, and we talk about how God has been faithful to His covenant promises, and just look at what He has done just this year alone. Look at what He has done in our life. That reflection is so empowering because you were overcoming Him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of the testimony in your own life, but it's your testimony and you're reminding yourself. And I just wanna encourage you, as we begin to go into this season of gratitude, as we begin to go into this season of Thanksgiving, reflect on how God has been faithful to you. Because you may be focused on the lack, you may be focused on like a scarcity mindset, you may be thinking, man, this year was a rough year. Look at the political scene, look at the inflation, and none of that is, you're not wrong, but what is wrong is to dwell there. When you can focus on the goodness of God and God's provision, it is gonna shift your mindset that you can truly say, I'm so grateful, and I'm even grateful for those valleys, and I'm even grateful for those wildernesses. And this year had a lot of unexpected things, but I am grateful for the way that you shaped me and transformed me, and you begin to see the gift, the gift of the valleys, the gift of the wilderness, the gift of those high places, because see, life is a journey. If you study with us and you read like any of the blogs about like the Hebrew calendar, it goes back, I mean, like the Hebrew months, it's amazing how it goes through these cycles. But every year, there are places that are spiritual pinnacles, and there are places where we are in seasons of strict justice. And every year, Paul says to me, how are we gonna do this different next year? How are we gonna like overcome this? And I'm like, I don't know, like what, every year we say we wanna do something different, but I think it's still the pattern that we're in in this natural world. But what do we focus on? We focus on the good side of it, and what God does and how he transforms us and how he positions us in the midst. So as we go into the season of Thanksgiving, I want to encourage you to press in to the Lord. With morning prayer, daily gratitude, and evening reflections. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope to see you same time next week, same time, same place, and happy Thanksgiving.