We have our own ideas of how our life should proceed. Sometimes we are correct. At other times God has a much better idea. We may seek to fortify ourselves by amassing more money than we need or attempting to move away from that which is threatening. It is hard for us to believe God will take care of us if we keep looking to Him.

Recently, the American people were very concerned about the malfunctioning of computers when the new millennium arrived. Some stockpiled food or took other steps to insure their safety and well being.

But the Lord said if we save our life we will lose it. We are so afraid of death, aren't we? Yet we want to go to Heaven, or at least we think we do.

I do not recommend carelessness when it comes to providing a reasonable amount of security for ourselves and our family. A fool does not come to a good end.

But we need to listen for God's voice. Is He telling us to stockpile food or are we listening to our fears? Is God telling us to move? Perhaps God would tell us to stay where we are so we can help people. If He tells us this, He will provide.

Sometimes the very move we make to escape brings us directly into the line of fire.

Wisdom, direction, strength, resources are provided day by day for the saint who is trusting God. Isn't it so? Have you found it to be so?

We will have taken a giant step into our land of promise when we can relax and trust God to help us step by step, hour by hour, as we look for His assistance.

Each time we do God's will we are fed with hidden manna. Our food is to do the will of God and to finish the work He has assigned us.

The manna was not hidden from the Israelites. They did not have to search for it, they just went out and collected it.

This is not the case today. The manna is hidden. It is not available to the casual Christian. It is given only to those who are fighting the Lord's battles, who are doing His will. They are the ones who are being nourished by every word that comes from God's mouth.

They are the ones who remain true to Christ even though everyone is against them. They flee from the love of money and from immorality.

Whatever the teaching of the Nicolaitans was, it produced casual Christians, just as is true of the love of money and immorality. It may have been antinomianism, the philosophy that offers salvation by belief alone apart from any change of behavior. Gnosticism (the overemphasis on the role of belief) and antinomianism (the overemphasis on the role of grace) prevail today in Evangelical teaching and preaching. They produce spiritually listless and disabled believers.

Those who do not repent of their unfaithfulness, their love of money, their immorality, and their casual, lukewarm pursuit of Christ, their overemphasis on belief and grace to the exclusion of the role of the keeping of the commandments of Christ and His Apostles, will never be given the manna they need for spiritual strength and wisdom. It is hidden from them. Spiritually they are weak and sickly but they do not realize it.

To be continued.