I'd Rather Have Manna

Many of us struggle at times with trying to make God answer our prayers our way.  We try to get the life we want or make things happen as we want them to happen.  I know I have over the years.  And while He has been very good to us and answered many prayers as I hoped He would, there are still many that He hasn’t.  For His own reasons.

 

And for many of us, it’s hard to learn to accept “less” than we want, to learn to go without, and to have to live with long-term problems or issues that we wish we didn’t have.  And this can mess with our faith and our self-image. 

There have been times when I desperately wanted an answer from Him that wasn’t coming and when I wanted to feel His presence yet I felt nothing.  And it brought up doubts and fears inside of me.  And in frustration with His silence and in exhaustion with the long wait, I found myself wanting to give up on God.  To take matters into my own hands or walk on ahead without Him.

The thing is, I think sometimes God allows extended, lingering trials in our lives in order to test our faith this way.  To see what's really in our hearts.  The Israelites were tested this way with manna while they wandered around the desert.

Most of the sermons we hear about God providing manna focus on God’s miraculous provision.  And while that’s definitely a main point of the story, the other main point is that it was also a trial.  God intended the manna not just to be a blessing but to be a disappointment.  Day after day, they were given the same boring manna for food.  Nothing exciting, nothing flavorful, nothing more special than manna.  And God did this not just to provide for their physical need for food, but also to test what was in their hearts.

Deuteronomy 8:16:  “He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.”  (And verse 2 explains why He tested them: “. . . in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”)

Not only were they wandering around a wide, dry, lifeless desert waiting for God to bring the blessing He promised, but now they had to eat manna every day.  Imagine going through the frustrating and painful “desert times” in your life and having only Corn Flakes to eat all day, every day. 

God provided a blessing to them – manna – which was also a disappointment.  On purpose.  It was to test the strength of their faith and to see if they were really committed to Him, even when life wasn’t exciting and didn’t feel super blessed.  Even when the trials were long and life was discouraging and His blessings were bland.  Would they still trust Him and believe in Him even when things didn’t go their way?

Doesn’t that feel like life, sometimes?  Like we are just existing instead of thriving?  Like we are getting things we don’t want and not getting things we do want?  Like God is letting us down?  Maybe it’s a boring job or financial struggles or health concerns or loneliness.  Anything can be your “manna.”  And many of us have eaten manna for years, while other people appear to get mountains of delectable food every day. 

I think a common misconception we have is that if God is in it, then it will be "exciting."  From the time we are young, we are told that God has "big plans" for us and that if we follow Him, He will lead us great places and help us accomplish great things.  And so when times are boring or commonplace, we tend to feel like maybe we are off-track, like we have to run out and find more great things to do for God, or like maybe He is displeased with us so He put us on the backburner.

But you know what?  Yes, God is the God of the big and exciting and fulfilling opportunities.  But God is also the God of the ordinary things.  The plain days.  The daily, monotonous jobs.  

Many of us think God spoke regularly and dramatically to people in the Bible, that He was constantly giving them big, exciting jobs.

But if you really think about it, it was probably a lot more ordinary than we realize.

Take Abraham, for example.  Abraham was given the promise of a child.  But then God didn't fulfill that promise (or even seem to speak to him again) for 25 years.  25 years of waiting for God to show up, of doing the same boring back-woods jobs everyday, waiting for "exciting" to happen.

And what about Moses?  Moses spent decades in the desert as a shepherd, just doing a shepherd's job, before God called him.  And the "exciting job" that God gave Moses?  Wandering around a desert for four more decades, leading a bunch of whining, complaining, rebellious people who made his life miserable.  And then, he didn't even get to enter the Promised Land.

I think that while God does dish out some exciting jobs to certain people, most of us will be asked to do the boring, ordinary jobs, to glorify God is the daily monotonous stuff.  Raise your children.  Cook the food.  Do the laundry.  Be nice to your neighbors.  Go to the same boring job every day.  Honor your father and mother.  Be faithful even when things are not the way you hoped they would be.

Basically ... "Eat the manna."

If we are God’s children, we will end up eating manna at some point in our lives.  We will end up with some sort of long, lingering trial.  Or some boring, monotonous stretch of life.  But it’s not that God doesn’t care or that He’s being stingy or that He’s not answering or that He’s absent.  It’s that He’s testing us to see if we are really committed to Him, if we will obey Him no matter what, if we will cling to Him even when we don't understand and don't like it.  (And it may just be that He doesn't have another job for us yet, that He just wants us to keep doing what we are doing until He's ready to give us the next task.)  

Someday, we will all find ourselves at a point where we have to make a decision.  Will we trust Him anyway and cling to Him and obey Him, even in the pain and silence?  Or will we will turn from Him and pursue what we want, running ahead of His calling to find something more exciting and fulfilling?  

At some point in all of our lives, He draws a line in the sand and says, “Will you stay on My side and trust Me anyway?  Or will you give up on Me and cross the line?  What are you putting your faith in?”

Of course, we will not enjoy these trials, but I think God has to test all of His children like this at some point.  Because it reveals what’s really in our hearts.  It makes us choose who or what we will really trust in.  It forces us to examine our hearts, our obedience, our priorities, our thoughts and feelings, why we believe in Him, why we trust Him.  It helps us uncover fears, doubts, sins, and idols in our hearts.  It challenges us to pursue God for Who He is and not for what He can do for us or give us.  It strengthens and purifies and grows our faith in Him, if we let it.  It matures us as believers.  And this growth and purification builds up our eternity, as we learn to store our treasures in heaven, to seek God and His kingdom above all else, and to bring Him glory no matter what is going on in our lives. 

The sad thing about unbelievers who stay on the opposite side of the line from God, who say “I choose me instead of You, God.  I want fun and freedom.  I don’t want You in my life” is that they will get exactly what they wanted.  Not just on earth, but eternally.  They might have "fun and freedom" for a little while, but they will get an eternity apart from God.      

And Christians who temporarily cross the line to get away from God and the trials and the ordinariness, who say, “I don't want the manna.  I want something better.  I'm going my own way, God.  Leave me alone” will get some space from Him ... for a time.  

But it will be bitter - because they will be living in their own puny strength and wisdom, making selfish and unwise choices that may hurt them in the end, and there will constantly be a deep, gnawing, longing ache in their hearts for more, for their Heavenly Father.  And eternity for them will be “less than” what it would have been if they had walked closely with the Lord while on earth.  (Of course, God pursues all people – lost and wayward – but He allows us to make the final decision about how close we let Him come.) 

So while those who are pursuing whatever they want in life might seem to have more fun than we have and appear to enjoy a certain “freedom” from God right now (as long as they keep ignoring that ache for something more than what this life has to offer, the ache that only God can fill), we children of God will get manna at some point.  And we won't like it very much.  

But when it comes to the effect it has on eternity, which one would you prefer?  

"Fun and freedom" for now, trading in heaven's treasures for earthly pleasures?  Or faithful obedience, clinging to God even during the boring, uneventful, painful "manna" times in life. 

Honestly, I’d rather have manna.   

(altered and reposted)