“They asked and he brought quail;

He satisfied them with bread from Heaven.”

(Psalm 105:40)

“Asked” is perhaps the polite way of putting it. The people whined and complained. Yet, how often God humors us in our whining and complaining. It is not that food was unnecessary to the people of Israel during their wilderness wanderings. Indeed, it was essential. Yet, God knows our feeble frames; he made us and knows what we need (Matthew 6:8), he provides for the creatures of the earth (Matthew 6:26), will he also not provide for you? Indeed, He will.

So, why do we fret our days away, worrying about things over which we have little or no control? Why to we lay awake at night fretting about the day to come? Why do our prayers so often sound like complaints rather than “Draw me close to you, Lord”? The simple answer is that we often doubt what we cannot see. So, like Israel complaining about not having meat and wondering what the stuff God provided on the ground happened to be, מן (man — translates as “manna”) means “What is it?,” and then complained because they had too much of it, so we do much the same. Yet, we should follow Jesus’ model, asking for our daily provision and learning to be satisfied with it.

Perhaps think about it from a different perspective. The Bible describes us as servants and slaves of God. A good master provides for his servants and a bad master leaves them alone to fend for themselves. God is a good master, so why do we feel entitled to complain about His provision? I believe that if most Christians looked over their lives, they would see God’s hand at work bringing provision and sustaining them through trial. Perhaps, if we remember this, it will help us avoid all the whining and complaining that often comes from our mouths in prayer.