The more I read the Bible, the more troubled I seem to become.

I always believed that God may not give us what we want, but He always gives us what we need. I’m sure I’ve used that in my preaching many times.

But I just discovered that that’s not true! Not only does God not give us what we want, but sometimes He doesn’t give us what we need!!!

God doesn’t always give us what we desperately and legitimately need! What???

Ex. 17:7, “And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

And what were they complaining to God about? Lack of water! They didn’t have water to drink in the middle of the desert after the exodus from Egypt.

I mean, how more legitimate a need can you have than water in the middle of the desert? Then, why does God get angry at the Israelites when they were asking for something they absolutely needed like water?

Because they weren’t asking. They were complaining. And they were accusing God of evil intentions of killing them in the desert.

What God wanted at this point was their trust. It was not wrong for the people to come to God with their legitimate need. But it was HOW they did it. They went to God complaining that their legitimate needs weren’t met and thus God must not have their best interest in mind. But God wanted them to approach Him trusting that He will give them what they need before it’s too late.

In other words, trusting God is trusting His goodness and His good intentions. This means at times, God may not give us what we legitimately need, but believing that even so, He has our best interest in mind…

That’s hard to swallow… I think that legitimately qualifies as meat!

See you Sunday!

PH