Leftovers Again?

By Cathy Irvin

I was thinking about a wonderful dish my son made the other day. It was seafood pasta and I was raving over it. The very next night I ate a small portion again; and the next day I took it to work for lunch. So by the third go around, somehow it wasn’t the same. It was still good, but there is something about a new fresh meal served right away. I was wishing I had brought something else. You do get tired of leftovers.

God fed the Israelites in the wilderness with enough manna for each day and told them not to eat the leftovers the next day. But did they listen? Did they trust Him for provision each day? Nope - they scooped it up anyhow.

And what did they discover? The leftover manna was no good. It had become rotten. See Exodus 16:12-20.

Do we come to God and give him our leftover time at the end of the day? God wants our worship and of course he accepts our petitions, but He wants a heart that is pure and wholehearted in adoration to him.

When you were a child you may have had a simple child’s prayer like “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep... " and that was fine; but now a repetitious prayer is no longer sufficient to God.

God wants our first fruits with all we have. He wants our best in everything and He wants to be our first love so we cannot offer him our leftovers. In the Old Testament God would not accept a blemished animal for a sacrifice; so He will not accept our half-hearted offering to Him today.

He tells us his mercies are new and fresh every morning and even in our prayers we ask Him for our daily bread; so why do we offer him anything less?

When you think about having company over for dinner you get a plan and prepare a meal - you don’t get out the leftovers to serve. Even our worship should be offered with our whole hearts, not just lip service. Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so He deserves quality time and dedication.

Somehow I feel there is no casual get together in the presence of the Lord. It is a holy and special moment every time we meet with Him. If we don’t honor Him and reverence Him, we just might not take our relationship serious and begin to take Him for granted; and you know what happens then?

God gets the leftovers.

Give us each day our daily bread. Luke11:3 (New International Version)

Manna

And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning."

However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Exodus 16:18, Exodus 16:19a and Exodus 16:20 (New International Version).

Daily Devotion

Leftovers Again?

By Cathy Irvin

Manna

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