One of my co-workers stopped by my cube this afternoon to announce that she had done a little housecleaning. 

 "Just thought I'd let you know in case you go looking for something," Lori broadcasted. "I just cleaned out the employee fridge."

Realizing that her public service announcement was more for the benefit of some of my domestically challenged colleagues who had the mistaken notion that our refrigerator doubled as a dishwasher after hours, I played along with her.

"You did? So that's where you've been all day!" I exclaimed.

Dusting her hands off on her skirt, she sighed, "Yep, got rid of all of the yucky food and moldy cheese. It ain't there no more-threw it all away."

 "No telling what you must have found," I replied.

"Well, the smell about knocked me off my feet, but from what I could tell, the dip was definitely having the most fun. It's been hangin' round since the last party, and the summer sausage didn't realize it was winter! The biggest mistake, however, was opening one of Tupperware containers. A green moldy eyeball stared back at me. It was so colorful, it even had an iris."

Wiping a pretend tear from her eye, she continued, "But the worst part is, I'm jealous of the Colby cheese."

"Jealous? Why's that?" I inquired.

"It had a fur coat!" she gasped. "That's totally not fair. All I want to know is-if cheese can have a fur coat, why can't I?"

We all had a good laugh and after Lori walked away, I thought about all the times that I had tried to feed myself outdated spiritual food. Instead of spending time with the Lord for a fresh word, I tried to pull something out of sacred storage. The problem is that even a word from the Lord doesn't stay fresh forever. If it sits too long, it can eventually expire. Even manna only lasted one day.

Manna was a daily provision of bread that the Lord rained down from heaven for the children of Israel. In Exodus 16, we can read the story of how the Israelites complained bitterly to Moses, so much so that they thought that they were going to starve to death. They even argued that they were better off living in captivity and bondage back in Egypt. Despite their protests, the Lord had compassion on them and provided for their needs. 

 The Israelites were instructed to rise each morning and collect what they needed for that day only. They were prohibited from gathering food for the next day except on the Sabbath. Those who disobeyed and tried to hoard more than their daily bread discovered that the leftovers were not edible. Day old manna had already begun to rot and was full of maggots.

God desires a daily relationship with us too. He doesn't want us to live on leftovers. Just like the Israelites needed manna from heaven each morning, we need a fresh word from God each day.  So don't try to get by on yesterday's manna. Nothing tastes better than fresh bread. Besides, old bread can grow fur too.