The children of Israel wandered through the wilderness surrounded by the supernatural provision of God. He had delivered them from slavery in Egypt, led them by cloud and fire, provided water in the desert, and fed them every single morning.
Then in Numbers 21:5 they said:
“Our soul loatheth this light bread.”
They were talking about manna.
Every morning they woke up, walked outside their tents, and the food was already there. God was daily providing for them in the wilderness, and somehow they had become bored with the miracle.
That is the danger of familiarity.
The manna was pointing to Jesus, the Bread of Life. Israel received bread that sustained their bodies daily, but Christ sustains us eternally. And just as they began to take the manna for granted, we can begin to take Jesus for granted.
Think about what God has done for us. The most powerful Being who exists loves you. He moved heaven and earth to save you. Christ became flesh, died for you, became your sin and the curse, rose again, delivered you from the power of darkness, cleansed you, gave you a new heart, joined His Spirit to you, and gave you eternal life.
And somehow we can still say, in effect, I’m bored.
I need a revival. I need another word. I need another revelation. I need somebody more anointed. I need something to make me feel spiritually alive again.
Meanwhile, Jesus is still the Bread of Life, daily providing for us.
Mixing Faith with the Word
Sometimes we do not need something new. We need to become amazed again by what we already have.
Hebrews 3 looks back at Israel’s wilderness experience and says that they hardened their hearts and could not enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 4:2 explains why:
“The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.”
God had spoken to them. He told them He would bring them into the land, drive out their enemies, establish them there, and make them a blessing.
They had the word.
They simply did not mix it with faith.
Instead, they mixed their circumstances with complaining.
The longer they rehearsed what was wrong, the more what was wrong became all they could see. Complaint does not merely describe your experience. Over time, it trains your attention.
What you repeatedly focus on trains what you notice.
If you continually rehearse lack, frustration, disappointment, offense, and everything other people are doing wrong, you can eventually be surrounded by God’s provision while believing He is not providing.
Israel was eating supernatural bread while saying, “There is no bread.” That is how distorted complaint can make our perspective.
We have to stop interpreting God’s will through the lack in our lives. God’s character must interpret our circumstances. Our circumstances do not get to redefine God’s character. He is good. He is a good Father. His heart toward us has been revealed in Christ, and the cross has already settled that question.
When fiery serpents came among Israel, God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent. Anyone who looked at it lived.
Jesus later said in John 3:14–15:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
The serpent was a shadow. Jesus is the fulfillment. They looked and lived.
We look to Christ and receive life.
And in John 12:31–33, Jesus again spoke of being lifted up in the context of judgment and His coming death. The cross is where sin, judgment, the curse, and death came upon Christ.
So when circumstances get loud, look at Jesus. When disappointment starts hardening your heart, look at Jesus. When you feel like God has forgotten you, look again.
Stay with the finished work of Christ long enough for it to stir you again.
Hebrews 4 says that “we which have believed do enter into rest,” and that “there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”
This changes the posture of the Christian life.
Many of us came from versions of Christianity that kept us feeling like something was always missing. We needed the next revival, the next conference, the next anointed teacher, the next revelation, the next breakthrough, or another level of holiness.
Our pursuit of God was often driven by lack.
But Christ satisfies.
That does not mean we stop pursuing Him. It means we pursue Him from a different place. We are not pursuing Him to become complete. We pursue Him because we are complete in Him. We are not worshiping to get Him to come near. We worship because He has already joined Himself to us.
We are not looking for the missing ingredient that will finally make Christianity work. We are learning to live from what Christ has already finished.
There can still be hunger, but it is not the hunger of emptiness. It is the hunger of gratitude.
You can be satisfied and still want to know Him more. You can be full and still have an appetite.
And sometimes what we call spiritual hunger may not mean we need God to put something else into us. Sometimes it means it is time to pour out what He has already placed within us.
Love somebody. Encourage somebody. Pray for somebody. Serve. Give. Teach. Share Christ. Use your gifts.
Maybe you are not empty. Maybe you are full.
Jesus is not merely the beginning of Christianity before we move on to something deeper.
He is the depth.
He is the Bread of Life, daily sustaining us. He is our righteousness, our peace, our life, and our union with God.
So keep pursuing Him. Keep growing. Keep believing. Keep mixing faith with what He has spoken.
But do it from rest.
Do it from fullness.
Do it from gratitude rather than complaint.
Don’t get bored with the Bread of Life. Look again at Jesus, remember how good He is, and let Christ satisfy your soul.
What area of life do you find yourself complaining about where Jesus has already provided a promise for you to stand on? And how will you renew your mind to not become bored with his daily life?
