Forty years

And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. – Exodus 16.35

Forty years. That is a long time. It is roughly the amount of time that I have been a Christian. Forty years ago it was 1975. I was 20 years old. I was a student at Widener College and had my whole life planned out. I was going to have a full military career and then pursue political office. I even planned my first run at the presidency for the 2012 election.

Forty years – how things change. In 1975 the only computer I had ever worked on used punch cards and filled a room. If you wanted to know something you couldn’t just google it. You had to look it up in the encyclopaedia or go to the library. Forty years is a major portion of a person’s lifetime.

And yet this group of Israelites were about the spend forty years in the desert with no means of their own. They had to spend forty years depending on God for their daily provision.  I am pretty sure than when they started out they had no idea it would be forty long years – it was only a two week walk. If they had known they would have no idea how God would provide or that they would have no choice but to trust Him.

But God, true to His nature, did provide. For forty long years, long before Jesus prayed ‘give us this day our daily bread, God gave the daily bread in the wilderness. For forty years, day after day, God proved Himself faithful.

And just as faithfully for roughly forty years since my salvation God has provided His daily bread for me. For forty years He had met my needs.

Why then do I struggle with how He is going to keep doing it? Why do I wonder if and how He will provide. He has proven Himself faithful. May I prove myself faithful in trusting Him for the future.