Steve Farrar - Manna: When Youre Out of Options, God Will Provide

2016 by Steve Farrar

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ISBN 978-1-4002-0457-1 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Farrar, Steve.

Manna : when you're out of options, God will provide / Steve Farrar.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0456-4

1. Providence and government of God--Christianity. 2. Trust in God--Christianity. 3. Faith. I. Title.

BT135.F375 2016

231'.5--dc23

2015027213

16 17 18 19 20 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my mom, Beverly Farrar, for being manna to me all the days of my life.

CONTENTS

1
EMERGENCIES AND EXIGENCIES

It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

MATTHEW 4:4 (ESV)

A t some point in your life, you are going to find yourself in a wilderness. You may be there right now as youre reading this book. There are many kinds of wildernesses: emotional, relational, health, reputation, failure, unemploymentthe list goes on and on.

When you are in the wilderness, you are usually isolated and overwhelmed, and you are cut off from the normal supply lines of life that keep you going. It is in these times in the wilderness that you find yourself utterly dependent on God for a well-timed help. If He doesnt come through, youre finished.

For forty years, two million men, women, and children were in a holding pattern waiting to go into the land that God had promised them. The historical account is in Exodus 16. These Hebrew families werent waiting in a citythey were wandering in an extremely rugged and remote wilderness. And God led them there on purpose.

In the wilderness, there was no source of food, so God fed them supernaturally every morning with manna. Manna had never been seen or heard of before. It was a supernatural provision of God that appeared on the ground each morning. The people were instructed to collect only what they needed for each days provision. If they collected too much, it would rot and grow foul. God designed it this way so that the Israelites would be completely out of food when they went to bed each night. If He didnt come through with the manna the next morning, they would begin to starve. He was forcing these people who doubted Him to learn that He could be trusted to supply everything they needed to survive. All supply lines were cut off in the wilderness. Yet in forty years, not one of these two million ever went hungry. Each day they saw the mighty, supernatural, perfectly timed provision of God.

If you are in some kind of wilderness as you read this book, there is a word that will ring true to you. It is the word emergency. My copy of Websters Dictionary defines emergency as a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence or set of circumstances demanding immediate action.

Every night, when the mothers and fathers of Israel put their kids to bed, they were completely out of food. Thats what you call an emergency. If the manna, the bread from heaven, wasnt there in the morning, every family in the nation of Israel would be in immediate crisis. But when they got up and went out of their tents, the manna was there, and it was there every time. God never missed in forty years.

Another word you probably dont use too often is exigency; the plural is exigencies. I mention both the singular and the plural because when you find yourself with one exigency, it almost always causes a chain reaction that burdens you with many exigencies. An exigency is a situation that calls for immediate action and attention. When you have a situation that requires immediate action and attention, other important things are going to have to be put aside and neglected until the exigency can be addressed. Suddenly you find yourself in an emergency of exigencies with pressing needs, pressing demands, and pressing requirements. And the problem is magnified when you look around and find yourself completely out of options. All of the normal supply lines that have always been there to help have been cut off. There is no pressure in the world like that kind of pressure.

What do you need in those situations? You need an immediate help, but it is not within yourself to come up with what is needed. You may be out of cash, out of a job, out of heath care, out of friends, out of family, out of health, out of emotional stability, out of luck, and out of options. You see no possible way out of these crushing and confining circumstances, whatever they may be.

But you are not out of a Savior.

His name is Jesus, and as we shall see, He is your sovereign Defender and Keeper. You may be out of options, but He is never out of anything. He is never out of answers, solutions, or power to immediately come to your aid and rescue you.

In these wilderness times of emergencies and exigencies, He calls us to come to Him just as Hebrews 4:16 describes: Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (ESV).

John Piper stated that the traditional translation of Hebrews 4:16 hides from us a very precious promise... the Greek original behind the phrase grace to help in time of need would be translated literally, grace for a well-timed help.

That translation of Hebrews 4:16 has been manna for me for twenty years, and I can still remember the first time I read Pipers insight. I was having a particularly tough day dealing with some financial burdens that were upon me as I was seeking to steward well the openings that had come my way to minister to men. Our ministry was young, but the opportunities were many and the cash flow was minimal. On one particular day in 1993, I was struggling mightily to fight off discouragement. I knew the Lord had called me to do this work among men to help equip them to be spiritual leaders in their homes and churches. I was overwhelmed with the great opportunities that were coming my way in response to my book