Introduction
He will not let you stumble; the One who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, He who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The LORD Himself watches over you! The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night. The LORD keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever. – Psalm 121:3-8 NLT
Certainty can be one of the sneakiest idols. It’s not a carved wooden figure that we bow before and pray to, but it’s something that we can put a lot of effort into trying to maintain. We use GPS to get us from Point A to Point B, pre-screen a restaurant’s menu before deciding whether we want to eat there, and plan our vacations down to the hour. Maybe you even scope out a venue’s parking situation so you’ll know exactly what to expect when you get there.
These are all somewhat trivial examples; looking up a menu before deciding whether it’s worthwhile to spend your hard-earned money there isn’t idolatry in itself. But often our need to be certain of small outcomes carries over to the bigger stuff as well, and often at the expense of full faith and trust in God.
The Israelites did this too. As they wandered in the desert for 40 years, hungry and restless, God promised to send daily provision to keep them fed. He told them to collect only what they needed for that day. But some of them tried to collect more than a day’s worth at a time, and the next morning they found that the extra food had spoiled.
They wanted to be certain that they would have enough to eat. Much like we do, they doubted that God was going to come through in the way He’d promised to.
Life is unpredictable. We can plan every moment and prepare for every disaster, and there are still going to be times that catch us off guard—in good ways and tragic ways. So how do we navigate seasons of uncertainty in a healthy way? How do we pray give us today our daily bread and then actually trust that God’s going to do it and keep doing it, day in and day out?
