Murmuring: The Sin of the People - Patricia St. John

"Nothing at all beside this manna"—that was the deep source of their discontent. At first they had enjoyed the manna immensely. It tasted like wafers made with honey and was quite a novelty, but they soon got tired of it. Their minds strayed back to the good old diet, and the more they savored it in imagination the more insipid the manna became.

They were no longer satisfied with what God provided. For us, this means Jesus, and He is all God ever promised us. He may add or take away a great many other mercies, but all we actually need to be content is in Jesus; and if He does not content us, nothing else ever will. When we long for the things this world can give, when we feel others have much and we have nothing, when life seems intolerably dull, we are, in fact, confessing that Christ has ceased to satisfy us. "Nothing at all," we mutter, "beside this manna!"

Blessed, blessed condition, no distractions! "Nothing at all," we say, and we can either spend our restless hungry days pining and complaining for those nothings, which would never have satisfied us in any case, or we can sit down and examine our assets. "Nothing... besides this manna"—then back to the manna! Can it satisfy us, or can it not? Did Jesus really mean anything when He said, "He that cometh to Me shall never hunger"?

"Oh," says the disattisfied Christian, "I've tried it, but it doesn't work. The Bible seems insipid to me, and I can't concentrate in prayer." But the manna had to be gathered early, ground, beaten, baked and eaten; it took time, patience, and hard work to be nourished by that bread How much time have we spent daily with Jesus? How much mental energy and practical obedience have we given to Bible study? How serious and methodical has our prayer life been? Don't call it off until you have tried fulfilling the conditions. He will be found of them that truly seek Him, but the seeking is costly, self-denying, disciplined work, and where we keep our part of the bargain, He will keep His. No one who ever sough Him with all their heart and mind and strength, giving to that search the time and purpose and energy and technical obedience that they would give to the supreme goal of their life, was ever disappointed. But those who treat that quest as a sideline, to be crowded in when possible and convenient, will always be disappointed.

—From Missing the Way by Patricia St. John, pp 7-8.