When God Feeds You Manna Instead of Meat

✨ Good Evening!

🍂 Are you beginning to see all the pumpkins and fall decorations everywhere? The mornings are starting to feel like fallhere in Memphis, and I’m enjoying every bit of it.

I love the changing seasons—the rhythms they create, the shifts they ignite (whether I’m ready or not), and the markers they provide that remind me time is passing and my children are indeed growing.

Recently, I shared a few thoughts on my IG story about a topic that has been on my mind.

📖 Story Time

This past spring, I was on a play date when a friend and I casually began chatting about the Israelite Exodus. I’ve often felt sad for the Israelites—having to bear the consequence of wandering the desert for forty years while waiting for an entire generation to die off because of their disobedience in not taking the Promised Land when God first commanded them to.

Reading about the wilderness has always sobered me. It reminds me how serious sin is—and how real its consequences are.

But on that play date, my friend mentioned something I had never really considered.

She alluded to the fact that although the Israelites’ wilderness season was a consequence of their actions—and not God’s original plan—it was still purposeful.

By relying on the manna that fell from heaven, the Israelites were forced to starve their appetites and desires for Egypt—the very place that had held them in bondage for centuries.

“In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.’”
— Exodus 16:2–3

The Lord hadn’t brought them out to die. Shortly after their complaint, He arranged for manna to fall from heaven to feed them daily.

Wonderful, right?

Well, this sudden and total reliance on the Lord was hard for them to endure. So hard, in fact, that the bondage they’d been freed from began to look more appealing than the dependence God was calling them into:

“Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, ‘Oh that we had meat to eat!
We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.’”
— Numbers 11:4–6

Don’t Romanticize Your Old Chains

Listen. I certainly can’t judge the Israelites.

Nor can you.

But I can learn from their response to the wilderness.

Whenever you find yourself in a season where the bondage the Lord is freeing you from starts to seem more appealing than the intimacy and reliance He’s cultivating—be aware, beloved. 💛

The Lord isn’t trying to kill you. He’s trying to kill your appetite for the things that once enslaved you.

Let me say it plainly: He’s bringing you to a place where you must crucify the flesh. Because if He were to bring you into your “promised land” while your old appetites still ruled, you’d crave the culture, food, and ways of your former bondage.

When Denying the Flesh Feels Like Death

When my husband and I were dating and struggling with sexual temptation, it quite literally felt like death to deny what we desired.

Every “no” felt like we were imprisoning our true selves—when in reality, the Lord was keeping us from being enslaved to sin. But when you’re in it, it doesn’t feel that way!

I share this because denying the flesh doesn’t just happen in abstract spiritual moments; it happens in our most personal, everyday battles.

Even Self-Reliance Can Be Bondage

The last point I’ll make is this:

We all know sin is bondage (I hope), but did you know self-reliance is a form of bondage too? This is where I currently struggle.

The comfort of doing whatever you want, whenever and however you want, can also enslave you. It’s sneaky—because the world calls it freedom.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’”
— Matthew 16:24–25 (ESV)

To walk in the freedom of the Spirit—to follow Christ—is to deny self. It’s to follow Him completely. It’s the daily giving over of self for the sake of Christ.

And it is a daily battle.

A Living Sacrifice, Every Morning

Many mornings, before my feet hit the floor, I have to consciously remind myself that my body is not my own, my time is not my own, and my will is surrendered to Christ. There are a million things I want to do—but before I move to care for our five little ones, I try to picture myself laying all of it down at His feet, acknowledging that I am a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the Lord (Romans 12:1).

If you find yourself in a wilderness season—where reliance on the Lord for daily manna feels uncomfortable—remind yourself that the Lord is changing your appetite.

That sort of transformation takes time. You might even crave the bondage you were freed from. But don’t go back there.

He’s Changing Your Appetite

Is it uncomfortable? Absolutely.

But whatever you do, don’t start romanticizing your old chains.

Allow me to repeat myself: The Lord is changing your appetite from the things of old.

Yes, it may feel like your flesh is dying—because it is. Appetites take time to change. Before long, you’ll find that the manna He provides is sweeter, lighter, and more satisfying than the dung you may have been consuming.

So sit with Him.

📖 Read His Word.

Allow the Lord complete the good work He has started in you.

And do that last thing you know He told you to do and be found faithful.

He’ll give you the power and strength with every denial to obey. I know it’s hard.

In short, the wilderness can feel like an endless circle of monotony with no clear aim—yet He’s changing our appetites in real time. Don’t short-circuit the pruning.

His manna may feel small, but it’s training your heart for the feast to come (Revelation 19:6–9).

💭 Ponder This

With all that said, what appetite is the Lord changing within you right now?
I’d love to know — share your thoughts in the comments.

**Photo Credit: Memphis Family Stories

https://www.memphisfamilystories.com