We hope you enjoy this re-post from February 5, 2015. Be blessed! The Today’s Quote From God Team

And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. – Exodus 16:21, KJV

Within Exodus 16, we find an urgent message from God to His people, and the message is this: do it now!

In Exodus 16, God introduced manna to the recently liberated people of Israel. With His provision of manna, He also provided conditions, including:

1. Pick and eat only what you need.
2. Don’t store up the manna and keep it overnight.
3. Pick two days’ worth of manna on the day before the Sabbath because there won’t be any manna on the Sabbath.

In my most recent reading of Exodus 16, a fourth condition jumped out at me like it never had before: pick the manna early in the morning before the sun gets too hot. As Exodus 16:21 tells us, the manna would melt away as the morning sun heated the land. On the surface, this condition doesn’t seem all that profound, but it really is. You see, God absolutely is and will be our Provider, but sometimes He puts time limits on His provision. He’ll provide something to us – a chance to witness, a job opportunity, a chance to serve in some leadership role – but we must seize hold of the opportunity just like the Israelites had to seize hold of the manna laying on the ground. After all, God neither put the manna in their baskets for them nor did He force feed them. They had to gather their own food and feed themselves. If any Israelites hesitated to seize the opportunity to gather their daily bread, then they and their families went hungry that day, and they had to wait until God’s next scheduled provision on the morrow.

You and I need to understand that God is our great Provider, but His provision will very often (if not usually) come with conditions. We will need to seize the opportunities that He gives us, and if we hesitate, we may very well lose them. God never intends for us to put off the work He gives us. If we do put it off, we can be assured that He’ll end up giving the work to someone else who will seize the day.