When I worked at McDonald's a couple of decades ago the menu offered Quarter Pounders and Quarter Pounders with cheese. You'd be surprised how many people wanted them without the cheese - at least I was. I mean, it's not like they weren't still 700 calories and no one even calculated fat grams back then.
After I had worked there a few months the company apparently decided that not enough people were ordering Quarter Pounders, sans cheese, to warrant taking up extra space on the menu. So they decreed that all Quarter Pounders should have cheese. Well that was all well and good, except that they, at least the powers that be in our store, felt that since it was now on the menu we should not ask the customers which type of Quarter Pounder they wanted.
Well, after working in the drive-thru for about ten minutes after this went into effect I knew there would be trouble. The first customer to order a Quarter Pounder asked for cheese. No problem. The next customer just ordered a Quarter Pounder. That meant he got cheese anyway. He did not want cheese. He returned, irate, about five minutes after leaving, demanding to know why there was cheese on his Quarter Pounder. Of course "the powers that be" who had decided the menu was self-explanatory and that everyone would get cheese were not around to smooth things over. That was left to me - the high school drive-thru girl!
So after explaining the situation and replacing his sandwich I began taking orders again. After this scenario (the irate customer) was repeated several times that night, I decided I would inform customers as they ordered that all Quarter Pounders now came with cheese. I figured if my manager didn't like it, he could take care of all the non-cheese lovers when they came back fuming.
I continued to announce the plus cheese menu to customers for a few weeks until people started to catch on. This made my job much less stressful and kept the customers happy. (And wasn't that my goal?)
When God provides a menu He makes the choices clear. He provides a variety of promises hinged on commands. The feast is plentiful, spiced with blessings and we have a truly heavenly dessert to look forward to.
When I make a choice based on God's commands I can be sure I will get just what he promised - no unexpected cheese. I will still have bad days and even painful, lengthy trials, but God will always be there to feed me.
" . . . because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen . . ." Isaiah 43:20