ONE HANDFUL IS BETTER

If we’re going to tip the scale in a better direction, it’s going to take a radical change of belief and practice. We need new thinking based on God’s Word, not on a chorus of conflicting voices in the culture around us. With God’s help, we can create a better life for ourselves. And I believe it starts with this key principle: “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 4:6)

Think about what this means for a moment. It is better to have less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does matter. It is better to have enough so that you can enjoy what you have than to have more and never enjoy it. Peace is better than stress. Less really is more. 

-- Chris Hodges in “The Daniel Dilemma: How to Stand Firm and Love Well in a Culture of Compromise”

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JUST ENOUGH, JUST IN TIME

“Give us this day our daily bread…”  (Matthew 6:11)

When God miraculously provided just enough manna for the Israelites, Scripture says that He provided just enough. The language describing God’s provision is extremely precise. Those who gathered a lot “did not have too much” and those who gathered a little “did not have too little.” God provided just enough. Then He gave them a curious command: not to keep any of it overnight.

Why does God provide just enough? Why would God forbid leftovers? What’s wrong with taking a little initiative and gathering enough manna for two days or two weeks? Here’s my take: the manna was a daily reminder of their daily dependence upon God.

Not much has changed. We still need a daily reminder of our dependence upon God. So while we may want a one-year supply of mercy, His mercies are new every morning. If God provided too much too soon, we’d lose our raw dependence upon God, our raw hunger for God. So God usually provides just enough, just in time.

I have scribbled the initials JEJIT in the margins of my Bible at various places where God provides just enough, just in time. He does it with the widow who is down to her last jar of olive oil. He does it when the Israelites are trapped between the Egyptian army and Red Sea. He does it when the boat is about to capsize on the Sea of Galilee during the perfect storm. And He does it again with the two fish and twenty thousand hungry people.

-- Mark Batterson in The Grave Robber


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