If You Are Longing For Spring and Freedom...

So maybe the winter that never ends is really starting to get to you.

 

And after four solid months, now becoming five, of snow on the ground and biting wind and temperatures below freezing, you are longing for sun and trips to the park and just some warmth again.

 

It can be easy to start to complain. 

It can be easy to start to whine a little.

It can be easy to think of all the things you wish were different.

And in these March days, maybe like me, you are reading through the Bible in a year and once again you come across this story in Numbers, this story of a people who found themselves complaining.

And maybe you read these words and see yourself for a moment.  You look into the mirror of the Word and you see the ugly and the true and you realize that these words are an alarm for maybe…you.

Because right there in the book of Numbers, is the story of the Israelites and their trip into the wilderness and how they got delivered from slavery and all they could think about was their current hardship in crossing this desert to get to the Promised Land.

They forgot about the hardship of their 400 years of slavery in Egypt.  In fact they thought that Egypt was looking pretty good right now.  They wanted to go back. 

Back to Egypt.  Back to slavery.  Back to oppression and the hopelessness. 

“Soon the people started to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said.  Then the Lord’s anger burned against them.” Numbers 11:1

If you have ever gone through a hardship that seemed to last forever, then you know how easy a little complaining can be. 

The Israelites had just been delivered from slavery and yet all they could see, think about, focus on was their current hardship of this desert crossing.

So the Lord told Moses, “And say to the people, ‘Purify yourselves because tomorrow you will have meat to eat.  You were whining, and the Lord heard you when you cried, “Oh for some meat to eat!  We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, not just for a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty.  You will eat it until you gag and are sick of it.  For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ‘ “ 

God told them that their whining and complaining was a rejection of Him.  It was a rejection of His provision for them, the miraculous manna He gave them every day.  It was a rejection of His sovereign plan of redemption for them, a flying fist in His face, because these Israelites were sure that they knew a better way to get out of this slavery, even though for 400 years they had been unable to free themselves.  But they were sure they could do it better. 

So He gave them what they wanted.  Meat.  Coming out their ears and vomiting out their mouths, meat. And it killed many of them.

Why do we always think we know better than God? 

And our ways always lead to death.

I have learned this lesson the hard way and I learn it again and again.  I have struggled with a hardship that lasted for more than a decade, going on two decades and I would like to say that I handled it with grace and thankfulness, but I didn’t always.

Instead I also have experienced the reality of focusing on the hardship instead of thankfulness and allowing bitterness to take root in my heart.  But I am thankful that I have found the remedy for bitterness and discontentment.

Repentance, surrender, faith and thanksgiving.

Like the Israelites wandering for 40 years because of their ungrateful, whining, and complaining hearts, I have often wondered if my promised land would have come much sooner if I could have embraced surrender and trust in God’s plan and chosen to be thankful for what He was providing today. 

Because He is always giving us what is sufficient for that day.  Manna for today.  Grace for today.

And no matter what we are going through, we can be thankful for God’s grace to us on the cross where He delivered us from slavery to sin and death.  And that is enough to fill our thankful bucket every single day. 

The question is, am I receiving His provision with thankfulness or whining?

Am I trusting that He has a plan in all of this wandering or am I trying to find my own way out of the desert?

I am still growing in this area of practicing thankfulness and embracing surrender and trust in His plan.  I can still fall into discontentment easily but when I fall, I now know how to really be free.

Repent of my ungratefulness, surrender a fresh to God’s will, trust that He is working always for my good in all things (Romans 8:28, my life verse) and choose to count my blessings.

And like spring, true freedom may be closer than we think.