Don’t pray for meat when you have enough manna?

^Numbers

¹⁸ "Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!" Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. ¹⁹ You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, ²⁰ but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it-because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'"

 ³¹ Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. ³² All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. ³³ But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. ³⁴ Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

It’s not often that I look to the book of Numbers for help and inspiration. But anyone who uses Wordlive from SU (fantastic free daily Bible readings and notes) will recognise today’s passage. The Israelites had manna enough for their needs but thought they needed meat.

I do understand the principle that I should pray for God’s will to be done in his time. His provision for my family has been faithful, if I had had to pick a time for my husband to be out of work this would be that time, yet, like the Israelites wanting some meat now, every time he goes for an interview I can’t stop myself asking let this be the right job, let this one be the one that God has chosen.

My friend’s son has just been offered a job – a position that shouldn’t exist, that seems to have been created specifically as an answer to prayer, the very job he needs. It’s a strong testimony to the power of a praying mother.

Perhaps strangely, it was a blessing to us in when my husband’s job ended. Then he needed some time to recover, to find himself again, some space. The garden has benefited, the family have benefited. He has been lifted by the thoughtfulness of a true friend, who encouraged him to start painting again with a commission for a tenner and a steak dinner! God knows his needs and what we need as a family. Pray for me to know the gift of patience…

the steak dinner commission

How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’ (Matthew 7:11).