“Do not worry! Earthly goods deceive the human heart into believing that they give it security and freedom from worry. But in truth, they are what cause anxiety. The heart which clings to goods receives with them the choking burden of worry. Worry collects treasures, and treasures produce more worries. We desire to secure our lives with earthly goods; we want our worrying to make us worry-free, but the truth is the opposite. The chains which bind us to earthly goods, the clutches which hold the goods tight, are themselves worries. Abuse of earthly goods consists of using them as a security for the next day. Worry is always directed toward tomorrow. But the goods are intended only for today in the strictest sense. It is our securing things for tomorrow which makes us so insecure today. It is enough that each day should have its own troubles. Only those who put tomorrow completely into God’s hand and receive fully today what they need for their lives are really secure. Receiving daily liberates me from tomorrow.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

I remember the account of the Israelites in the desert and how God provided manna for them. The trick — if you want to call it that — was that they could only gather enough for that particular day. They couldn’t stockpile it to last for weeks. They had to gather what they needed for the next 24 hours and trust God to provide again the next day.

Worry at its core says that God can’t be trusted, that I can’t take Him at His word. Worry says that if it’s to be, it is up to me. But faith says that if it is to be, God is up to it.

When God’s people tried to take more than what they needed, the surplus went bad and stank. Only when they were faithful did the manna last. When we take God at His word, we never go wrong.

It seems that Jesus had manna in mind when He told us to pray for our daily bread, trusting God for each day rather than trying to figure out the next week or month or year. We pray the same prayer, trusting the same God who keeps His same promises from one day to the next.