233. What We Think We Need and What We Actually Need.

[00:00:08] Hi friends, welcome to another episode of Making Disciples. My name is Cris Rogers and I am your host. It's lovely to be with you today. I do have a couple more interviews in coming weeks that I'm going to be sharing with you. But today I thought we'd break it up from the interviews and take a little time just thinking about the topic of what we think we need and what we actually need.

[00:00:34] There's so many times in life when what we think we need to succeed or what we think we need in life, these things become so important to us. We won't be praying for them and praying for them and praying for them, but actually what we really need is something completely different that we might not be looking for or asking for.

[00:00:58] And I was reading through the Exodus story again recently and just came across a wonderful, just a moment in time, where God's people are grumbling. And I thought, do you know, that would make an interesting little podcast episode just to explore what we think we need rather than what we actually need. Because the people of God were regularly grumbling and demanding things that actually this was not what God wanted to give them.

[00:01:26] Sometimes what God wants to give us may be a bigger blessing. Sometimes what God wants to give us may actually to ourselves look like a serious downscale from what we were asking. But actually, ultimately, it's the greatest gift because it's the gift of reliance on him. And this topic, I think, is one that many of us haven't spent much time reflecting on or maybe not been reflecting on.

[00:01:51] So I wanted to go and spend a bit of time looking at this topic of God's provision. Cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. The people of God grumbled that God was not giving them these things. So we're going to look at a couple of verses from Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy as a way of just reflecting and asking ourselves, am I asking God for the right things? Is there something God might want to be teaching me right now?

[00:02:19] So I hope you find this episode one that really connects with you, really speaks into where you're at and what you're asking of God right now. So, friends, let's jump in and let's spend some time reflecting on what we think we need and what we actually need. So let's jump in and look at this topic then.

[00:02:47] So as we start to think about what we think we need and what we actually need, I want to take you back to the Exodus story. God's people have been freed from Egypt. Remember, they were in slavery. They were forced to build bricks upon bricks upon bricks. And it got harder and harder. That slave labor got harder and harder to the point where it was breaking the people of God. And God sends Moses through the burning bush.

[00:03:13] He speaks to Moses and sends Moses to go to Egypt and to set his people free. And you remember the story. They end up leaving after the 10 plagues. They leave Egypt. They walk through the parted Red Sea. The Pharaoh's armies are drowned in the sea. And God's people now end up in the wilderness, into the wilderness. So they're now in the wilderness. And they do not have the provisions now that they need.

[00:03:42] They were there for 40 years. They don't have the provisions they need. They've eaten everything they've taken. And now they're starting to run dry on food. Exodus 16.3. And the Israelites here are longing to go back to Egypt. And they say this. The Israelites said to them, if only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. While here in the desert, you have brought us out to starve.

[00:04:12] This entire community to death. So they're reflecting on Egypt. They're reflecting on the wilderness. And they're reflecting on how, actually, they were more appreciative at this moment in time in being slaves in Egypt than they were in being free men and women in the desert. So here you've got people grumbling. They're thinking about, wouldn't it have been better if God had killed us in Egypt rather than taken us off? You know, wouldn't it have been better for us to have died there than it is to die out here?

[00:04:42] So a real negative way of thinking. And this story is picked up again, continuing in Numbers 11. And at this point, they're complaining about their food choices. It says this. The rabble with them began to crave other food. Again, the Israelites started wailing and said, if only we had meat to eat. We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost.

[00:05:10] Also cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna. So God had taken them into the wilderness and he was providing them daily spiritual food. And the idea was they'd come out the tent in the morning and there would be this bread on the floor. They didn't know what to call it. So they called it manna. Literally translates as, what is it?

[00:05:39] What is it? That was the name of this bread on the floor, manna. And they could take it. They could take enough of the day. They could eat it. And it was bread. But if they kept some to the next day, it would be rotten and be filled full of maggots the next day. So it was a way of God forcing them to every day be reliant on God's provision. But they were not happy with what God was providing. They wanted something more. And then there's a lesson.

[00:06:07] The lesson is then found in Deuteronomy 8.3. And it says this. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known. This is something you'd never known about in the past. This was something that God was doing. The supernatural thing was something that God was doing to teach you that man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

[00:06:36] So Deuteronomy is telling us it's not just about the bread. This isn't a situation where the lesson is just God's provision. What we're learning here is actually the lesson is God is providing for you, but he's providing something that forces you to realize that we do not live on bread alone. You need more than bread. So actually it was to open their eyes to the need for God, that there was more that they needed in their lives. There's this deeper revelation, deeper relationship of who God is.

[00:07:06] And that's what was missing. So the Israelites were longing to go backwards. They were not happy with what they got. They were complaining about their food, even though God was providing this amazing spiritual gift of bread from heaven. He was providing water from a rock. They were not happy. This is all they got. They were looking for the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, the meat.

[00:07:31] And the whole purpose, the lesson behind this was that God was trying to humble his people, wanting them to realize that in their hunger, he would provide for them. But they needed more than food. They needed more than food. It was spiritual food that they needed. So there's a deeper lesson that God was teaching them here in this moment. So what do we do with this? What do we do with this?

[00:07:56] As we think about what we think we need and what we actually need, the Israelites thought what they needed was this amazing food they'd left behind in Egypt. But God knew what they really needed. They needed a revelation of the need for more than food. This revelation of the need for God to be dependent on him. They needed more than something that would fill their bellies.

[00:08:22] So there's three things I want to draw out for us today. Number one, I think one of the things to draw out is this, the illusion of comfort. Comfort. Cucumbers of slavery. So we have a clear illusion in our lives of what comfort is. We've got these ideas of what comfort is. I've recently come back from Norway. I've been spending a few days in Norway.

[00:08:51] And one of the things that I hear talked about a lot in Norway and Denmark is this idea of hoogli. You know, comfort, snug spaces in winter particularly, creating these comfort places. We get ideas what we think comfort is. And the thing is, this comfort that's in our minds, it has at the centre of it this narrative of us.

[00:09:15] Comfort as we know it centres a narrative around you in the middle of it. So comfort becomes about the things that you think you need that would make your life more comfortable. And it becomes about a perceived need. We would be much happier if we were to have. We would be much happier if we were to have this or have that. You see friends, the Israelite romanticised their past in Egypt.

[00:09:45] And what they were doing was, in this romanticising the past, as focusing on those vegetables and forgetting the problem that they were in. As they romanticised their past in Egypt, they remembered the comfort of slavery, the cucumbers, rather than the oppression that they had experienced. They forgot fast. And I think if you and I were honest with ourselves, we are very good at forgetting fast.

[00:10:10] We forget fast the reality of the situation that we were in. They forgot fast that they were being beaten. That they were being forced to work long hours. They were forced to make bricks to build and to build. They forgot all of that because they were romanticising the fact that they had cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic, meat. They were romanticising these things.

[00:10:38] So they remembered the comfort of slavery, the cucumbers, rather than the oppression that they had experienced. They forgot fast what they'd really been through. And I think we're very good at that, aren't we? It's very good to romanticise backwards. We get it with elderly people, don't we? When all they do is talk about how amazing it used to be. How people used to behave years ago. I hear a lot in East London about people could leave their doors open. And they make it sound like there was no crime.

[00:11:08] They make it sound like burglary didn't happen. Well, of course it did happen. They just forget these things. They've romanticised the past. So what we're doing there is we are, as people, we are often clinging to the familiar things. But the harmful situations, we ignore them, forget about them. It's almost like the things that bring us fear we ignore and we romanticise the past.

[00:11:36] I don't know if you've heard this phrase, but you're better than the devil you know. I've had that said to me before, particularly when you're voting for politicians. Oh, better than the devil you know. You know, they're all the same. I don't know what you think about that phrase in regard to politicians. But that's what we do about the past. It's better to know where we're at and have the same situation than a future that's unknown. So what is it we think we need? We think we need comfort. And we think it was there in the past. And we romanticise and forget that actually we never really had it.

[00:12:05] So if you go back to the Exodus passage, 16.3, as just a key reference for us, we wish we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. In other words, we wish God had killed us there rather than killing us out here in the wilderness. We wish we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt. There we sat around with pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. While in the desert we have nothing. Well, of course they had something.

[00:12:31] Of course that God's provision, this daily provision, God was gifting them a daily provision. But they'd grumble us. So the first thing I would say is recognising there's an illusion of comfort, cucumbers of slavery. You know, we have this illusion that things in the past were better than they are today. So we forget actually what the situation really was like. The second thing I would say is the trap of nostalgia and that sense of short-sightedness.

[00:13:01] Let's just have a think of it a little bit for a moment about the Israelites. They complain. What does it reveal? It revealed their spiritual immaturity. When we are complaining, God has not given us what we want. We can end up sounding like a child having a tantrum. God has not given me what I want. Therefore, God does not love me. God must not be kind. God must really dislike me.

[00:13:30] I hear friends this all the time. And it's like a spiritual tantrum that people... And it's not that... You know, I recognise there are deep prayers where we're praying for others and it's breaking our heart. And we're praying and praying and praying. I'm not talking about those situations. I'm talking about those times when we are just complaining that God has not done what we want him to do. You know, he's just not doing what I want him to do. You know, he's not behaving as that cosmic vending machine as he should be.

[00:14:00] So there are times when our complaining reveals that actually the issue is spiritual immaturity. I wonder if that's worth reflecting on. Am I spiritually immature? Am I asking things of God that actually I'm not listening to see what the response is? Because I'm just stamping my feet and having a bit of a spiritual paddy right now. Or is it... You know, there's a difference between that, isn't there? Having a spiritual paddy and stamping your feet and actually persistence in prayer. Coming before the Lord every day.

[00:14:30] There's a difference in it. And I think it's down to what's really going on in our prayer. Are we stamping our foot, complaining? Or are we actually persisting in prayer? Yeah. So, friends, the Israelites, they valued the temporary physical comfort over the spiritual freedom they had. They looked back and thought they were in a better position than they actually were. The reality is they were now free people. And they were not living in Egypt with an oppressive regime.

[00:15:00] They were now in the wilderness. And so, nostalgia was stopping them from actually recognizing they were actually in a better position now. They might not have the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks, the onions and the garlic. But what they did have was their freedom. And they were shortchanging that. They were shortchanging the idea of the freedom. So, nostalgia can blind us to God's larger plan and provision. We are just looking back. We're just seeing what we no longer have.

[00:15:30] Friends, the manna was a symbol. This bread from heaven was a symbol of God's supernatural daily provision. It was a symbol of God's supernatural daily provision. And it's about complete dependence. What God was doing with that manna was he was causing the people of God to be dependent on him. Not on all the things the Egyptians had just been kind of giving them as slaves.

[00:15:59] You know, God was offering freedom. But in this freedom, he was asking for his reliance to be on him and not on anything else. So, we talked about the illusion of comfort. We've talked about the trap of nostalgia. It was better in the past. And now, let's talk about the third thing. Abracing God's provision from cucumbers to heavenly bread.

[00:16:23] So, let's first think about contrasting the limited earthly provision that the people of God were given in Egypt. And, you know, these cucumbers that they got, there was a limited provision that was given to them as part of the slavery that they were under. Let's contrast that with the divine supernatural provision of God's manna. One was very much a free gift. One was given to them because they were slaves.

[00:16:53] So, there's quite a contrast there between God's provision as a daily act of his love. But saying, look, I'm going to give you a day's worth because I want that relationship with you. This is not about me giving you freebies where you just go off and do your thing. I want you to be reliant upon me. Whereas the cucumbers were about, was about buying the slavery. Keeping the slaves doing what they were doing because they were being provided this beautiful food.

[00:17:21] So, God provides what we need, not what we think we need. The Egyptians thought what they needed for a good life was the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, the meat. What God knew they needed was actually freedom from oppression. And what he recognised was that they also needed his provision. So, God provides what they need. He's giving them what they need. Because I am very good at telling God what I need.

[00:17:51] And forgetting to ask really what is it that God wants to give me. What is God wanting to provide for me? I'm better at telling God what I want. Just some examples. I was just thinking about the kind of things that I often talk to people about. Things like career paths. You know, we can complain at God that God has not given us the career that we wanted. Or the job that we want. But actually God might be doing something else in that.

[00:18:18] He may be keeping you where you are so that you can trust him and be reliant on him. I don't know. But sometimes career paths is a good example of where we're telling God what we want. Rather than listening to what God wants for us. Relationships are another one. And it's really difficult if you're single. I get it. If you're single, it's really hard. Because you can say, God, I really want this. But there's an element here of particularly relationships. We can be telling God what we want.

[00:18:47] And actually what God may be doing is something slightly different. And I'm not saying that God would prefer you to be single. But you don't know when God's provision will come. I have some amazing friends who for many, many, many, many years in their life they were single. And then ended up relocating or ended up going to do something on mission much later in life. And ended up finding that person. And what I realized was it wasn't that God was saying no ever.

[00:19:15] He was just saying you are not in the right place yet to meet the person that I've ordained you to be with. So there's something there about recognizing God's provision is in God's time. Not necessarily our time. The third area of provision that we might be arguing with God is over our financial choices. We might be wanting wealth and material success. I always think of only fools and horses. This time next year we'll be millionaires.

[00:19:42] You know, God make me the made man or the made woman. And God, you know, sometimes that's not what I want for you in your life. And other things around lifetiming. You know, sometimes we want to rush into a relationship. Rushing to having children. And it's a sense of immediacy. But actually being able to sense God's invitation to wait, grow or prepare yourself first for these things. So sometimes we can be telling God I want this now.

[00:20:11] Thinking of Queen, I want it all. I want it now. I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. I want it now. I don't sing, by the way. But yeah, we can be telling God I want this. I want this. I want this. And actually God can be going, not yet. Not yet. Or no, that's actually not good for you. So I'm very good at telling God what I need rather than asking God what do you think I need. What do you think I need, Lord? These are the things that I might be asking you for. But is that actually what you need?

[00:20:41] So friends, I would argue there's a spiritual lesson here with the Israelites. It's a spiritual lesson about trusting God's plan over our limited understanding. The people of God thought when they were led into the desert, that really the better option would have been to be staying back in Egypt in slavery rather than realizing that eventually this journey in the wilderness would lead them to a better place.

[00:21:08] And a better place with Messiah Jesus in Jerusalem. You know, they couldn't see it. So the manna was a metaphor for spiritual sustenance and complete dependence on God. The manna was a metaphor for spiritual sustenance and complete dependence on God.

[00:21:36] The manna was a picture of something else. Something else. Where else do we learn about spiritual bread? Let's now fly to John 6.35. And Jesus declares this. He says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

[00:22:04] So here what we have is Jesus. The manna is a pointer to the full presentation of Christ. Jesus, the bread of life that comes to us when we are hungry. So what we think we need is cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But what we actually needed was the manna from heaven. Jesus Christ, the one who is the bread of life.

[00:22:34] So what we think we need are the earthly things that we can hold on to. The comforts of this life. That's what we think we need. The job, the partner, the house. Comfort, settling down, security, banks with money in. And that's what we think we need. What God knows we need is not a dependency on those things, but a dependency on him. Jesus, the bread from heaven. That's actually what we need.

[00:23:02] So what we think we need is all the comforts of this world. But what we actually need is freedom found in Jesus Christ. The bread from heaven. So it just really struck me, just reading that passage again, just how helpful it is in championing our relationship with God and being dependent on him. But also the challenge. Are we asking in prayer for the wrong things? Are we asking for the wrong things? Rather than demanding. You know, that's not me saying don't pray for a new job.

[00:23:31] I do, you know, be praying. But then don't complain if God does not give you what you're asking for. Because it could be what you're asking for is not what God is wanting to give you. And therefore the question we have to ask ourselves is, you know, your will be done, God. Your will be done. My prayer is a new job. Your will be done. I'm going to do whatever you ask. So, you know, whatever you want me to have, Lord, that's actually what's more important here than what I am demanding.

[00:23:58] So the challenge is in prayer not to tell God, but to say, God, look, this is what I would love. But your will be done. You know more than I. You know what I actually need. And I will go on and trust you, Lord, even if you don't give me what I think I am due. But actually, Lord, I'm going to trust you. I am going to trust you. So, friends, rely on Jesus, the real bread of life,

[00:24:22] rather than wanting the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, the meat, all of the things that we think the earth will provide for us, the earthly needs that we need. Trust in Jesus, the bread of heaven. Friends, I hope that you find that helpful, challenging, just something to reflect on and think about in your everyday life. What is it that you are most reliant on? Friends, until next time, grace and peace.

[00:24:51] And we will catch up very soon.