Morning Devotional 111225 Start With God

Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room

November 12, 2025 

Exodus 16:15-19

When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was. Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. 16 This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’” 17 The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less. 18 But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat. 19 Moses said to them, “Don’t keep any of it until morning.”

Good Morning! God provides for our needs!

God’s grace is sufficient to meet our needs. 

When I prepare a meal for a large group, I love it when everything comes out just right. Ideally, everyone has enough to eat, and there are no leftovers to be refrigerated. In reality, however, I always seem to have extra of one thing, but not quite enough of another. 

One of my funny restaurant memories was watching Lowell try to balance out his mashed potatoes with his meat at a buffet. He filled his plate and began to eat. When his meat was gone, he still had potatoes, so he went and got a small piece of meat. Despite his best efforts, his portions were still imbalanced. 

Left to our own devices, we often juggle things to balance the scales. We strive to strike a balance between work and leisure, income and bills, and food and hunger. When we need a little more income, we take on additional work, which diminishes our leisure time. 

Within our balancing of life events, we are often challenged to leave time for God. We promise ourselves that as soon as I catch up on my bills, I will attend church more often or be able to support the church, but our resources are always stretched. As life has a habit of doing, there are always more demands on our time and energy, and the imbalance is never-ending.

Only God can balance our challenges with our blessings. When we begin with God first, the other things have a way of working out. We have the answer to balance our equation of life. Pray, serve, and love first! 

Lord, you bless us abundantly! You give us the answer, but sometimes we forget to use it. Thank you. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Thought for the day: God balances our lives!

Put God first! Pastor Liz