Wednesday Words of Encouragement

After years of captivity, beatings, imprisonment, death, and starvation, they were out from under the yoke of Pharaoh. The Israelites had seen terrible plagues fall upon the Egyptians while they remained unscathed. They had followed Moses through the pushed back walls of water of the Red Sea. God miraculously saved them.



Then He fed them. He rained manna from heaven, the life-giving bread which He produced just for them. He gave them water to drink. They saw water gush from the rock that previously had been dry. By now the Israelites should have trusted God and known he would take care of them. But they still hadn’t learned this lesson.



Complaints, grumblings, rumblings, and murmurings were things the Israelites did very well. They began to complain once again. This time it was about meat. They were tired of manna, and they started to reminisce about “the good old days” in Egypt when they had all kinds of meat and vegetables. Their memories were faulty as they started to believe that life was so good in captivity. 


God told them, "You want meat?" "I'll give you so much meat, you'll choke on it!" “I’ll give you so much that it will make you sick.”

I can laugh at this story, but at times, I can be just like the Israelites. I pray and ask God for something and in His goodness, He gives it to me. But as time goes by, I want more, or even worse, I express dissatisfaction with the very thing I asked Him for originally. “Why do I have to eat manna day after day?” “Why can’t you give me meat, Lord?”


My cautionary word is to be grateful for what the Lord has given you. Stop expressing dissatisfaction with the gifts you have received. Stop looking at others and comparing and saying, “If only God had given me a husband like that.” or “If I had this spiritual gift or personality, then I could really live my life for the Lord.” 



Keep sight of the miracle God has done for you and thank Him for it. Be careful, lest you get more meat than you can eat!