Not Just Needs

The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.   Exodus 16:35

Not Just Needs
By Rev. William Dohle

My kids are spoiled.  I will be the first to admit it.

They have more things and most stuff than 98% of the children do in the world.  They have been "blessed" with enough distractions to keep them busy for hours and hours in the day.  Each day three meals are set before them.  There's no wondering where their food will come from.  And they have developed tastes and wants...and preferences beyond what they need.

They are spoiled.  Unlike others in our world, they have all their needs fulfilled.  They can indulge their wants.

I was told, and taught, that God doesn't care for our wants.  He provides for our needs.  His provision is such that some of us are given far more than we need so we can take what we have and share it with others.  God provides for our needs...but never our wants.  Needs are good...wants are somehow evil.

However, if you read the Bible carefully, that statement is only half true.

God does provide for our needs.  Just as he provides for the needs of all creation.  In the wilderness, as God's people of Israel were escaping Pharaoh, God provided for their needs.  He did so in the form of manna, a thin crusty bread, that rained down from heaven six days a week.  "The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey."  (Ex. 16:31)  This bread would keep Israel alive, even in the wastelands of the wilderness.

But God's people were not happy.  Israel was upset.  How could they live on bread alone?  They could but they didn't want to.  They wanted something else.  They wanted meat.  The people of Israel complained against Moses and Moses brought their complaints to God.  And God listened.

“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.'"(Ex. 16:11-12).

Did you see what God did?  God gave them what they wanted!  Not just what they needed but what they wanted.  God gave them what they asked for!

God does this quite a bit!  He gives the people what they want...with quail.  He gives them what they want...with a king.  And He gives them what they want...in a savior!

Each time God does this, you'd think the people would be happy.  But alas, we are who we are, and we are never happy.  One want leads to another want leads to another want.  It just never ends!  But God sticks with us the entire time, sometimes answering wants with exactly what we want and sometimes fulfilling our deeper intangible wants, as He did through Jesus Christ, when he gave us salvation from sin and death and the powers of evil, the need under all our wants.

So the next time you pause in prayer, realizing what you're asking for is really not a need but just a want, relax!  God listens to both.  God can sort them all out!   And, who knows, God may give you what you truly want, what is beneath the physical want you presented to him.

Lord God, heavenly king, increase our faith.  Open our eyes.  Make us bold to present all our wants and needs at your feet and trust that you will provide for us.  Amen.