There Is Always Manna: Choosing Gratitude in the Wilderness

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." Psalm 103:2

The flesh and the Spirit are often, if not always, at odds with each other. Scripture tells us plainly: "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other" (Galatians 5:17). And nowhere is that conflict more

obvious than in the matter of gratitude. When life has been hard, when loss has piled on loss, it can be challenging to have an attitude of gratitude, even when we know we should be grateful.

I want to be honest with you: gratitude in the wilderness is not natural. It is spiritual. The flesh keeps inventory of everything we've lost. The Spirit keeps inventory of everything God has done. Only one of those lists will carry you through.

Get Still and Look Around

Sometimes all it takes is getting still. Looking around. Observing all of God's goodness that has been there the whole time, quietly sustaining us while we were too overwhelmed to notice.

The psalmist doesn't just tell his soul to bless the Lord; he tells his soul to forget not all His benefits (Psalm 103:2). That word "forget" is doing a lot of work. It assumes we are prone to forgetting. It assumes gratitude must be deliberate, rehearsed, spoken out loud to our own souls when our souls don't feel like listening.

So try this reframe. Rather than complaining about what we have to do, what if we saw it from the perspective that we get to do this? We get to be here. We get to have this moment, a moment we otherwise wouldn't have, because of God's grace. When life is overwhelming, take a breath. Take a step back. And thank God for all that we have and all that we are, because of Him.

The flesh keeps inventory of everything we've lost. The Spirit keeps inventory of everything God has done.

There Is Always Something

Even in the worst of circumstances, there is always something to be grateful for.

The manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16:4). The shade in the scorching heat of life. The peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). The One who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). There is always something.

Even in impossible situations, ones that seem dire, God always gives us something to hold onto. The problem is, we often don't see His mercy because we're too busy focusing not on Him, but on all that we no longer have or don't have. Yet His Word declares: "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:22-23). The mercy is there. New, every single morning. The question is whether we have eyes to see it.

When the Fire Is All You Can See

I know it's not easy to look past the fire when it's burning right in front of you. It's all you can think about, all you can concentrate on. But consider this: when Moses saw the burning bush, he had a choice. He could have stared at the flames, or he could turn aside to see what God was doing in them. "So Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight'... When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush" (Exodus 3:3-4).

God spoke from the fire.

Sometimes the very thing consuming our attention is the place God intends to meet us, if we will turn toward Him in it instead of just staring at the flames. But hear me: when all we focus on is all that we can see, we will miss all that God has for us, both around us and ahead of us.

Two Ways Out of the Wilderness

Some situations don't just teach a person gratitude; they are humbling in nature. So humbling that when the wilderness season finally ends, that period of grief, longing, and hopelessness turns into relief, appreciation, and a deeper dependence on God. That's what the wilderness was always for: "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you... to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:2-3).

But there is another way people come out of the wilderness. Sometimes what is birthed there is a hardened heart. Rather than gratitude, there is bitterness over what has transpired. A sense of entitlement begins to brew. And rather than giving God the glory over our circumstances, we blame others for how life has turned out. We place unhealthy and unrealistic expectations on people. Instead of living in a place of surrender, we hold onto anger, pain, grief, sorrow, and disappointment, closing our hearts off to God.

Scripture warns us about this exact danger: "See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many" (Hebrews 12:15). Bitterness never stays contained. It defiles. It spreads. And it will rob you of the very promise God brought you into the wilderness to prepare you for.

The same wilderness that humbles one heart can harden another. The difference is not the wilderness. The difference is what we do with God in it.

Gratitude Moves Us Through

Having gratitude, giving thanks in all circumstances, allows us to move through seasons of hardship, struggle, and hopelessness, believing God has something better ahead, and that He is speaking and teaching us something valuable about Him and about life as we walk through difficulty. This is not a suggestion; it is His will: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

It isn't easy. I know. Nor does it seem fair. But we live in a fallen world, and gratitude is one of the ways God keeps our hearts soft inside of it.

There is more, though, and I say this in love: we must also learn to be accountable for our own decisions and mistakes. Not bound by them, but willing to learn from them. We must learn to let go of the past in order to move forward, because we cannot receive the promise of God while refusing to move beyond where we are. Paul put it this way: "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal" (Philippians 3:13-14).

And we cannot expect our situation to be different if we are not actively pursuing the outcome we pray to see. "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17). Some things we must do even when we don't feel like doing them. That is not hypocrisy; that is obedience.

Examine Yourself: How Are You Treating the Help God Sent?

This part is hard, but it needs to be said, and I include myself in it.

Scripture tells us to "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith" (2 Corinthians 13:5). So let's examine. If we walk around ungrateful, criticizing the very people who are trying to help us, blaming them for what is or isn't happening in our lives, how can we expect God to continue blessing us with help, when our ingratitude is causing His children to suffer for their obedience?

The people God sends into our lives during seasons of need are not obligated to us. Their help is not owed. It is grace, wearing skin. When we treat provision like entitlement, we are not just wounding people; we are despising the hand of God that sent them. Even family. Especially family.

Depend on God

Here is where it all lands: we must learn to depend on God. Not on people, not on circumstances, not on outcomes we've scripted in our own minds, but on Him. "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him" (Jeremiah 17:7).

To live in such a way that pleases Him and glorifies Him. To be grateful for our lives, because life itself is a gift. To embrace those helping us in our time of need with thanksgiving, instead of an unhealthy expectation that they should. People will fail us; they are human. But the One who sticks closer than a brother never will.

So today, get still. Look around. And forget not all His benefits: He forgives, He heals, He redeems your life from the pit, He crowns you with love and compassion, He satisfies your desires with good things (Psalm 103:2-5).

Even here. Even now. There is always manna.

Reflect and Respond

1. When you look back on your hardest season, what "manna" did God provide that you couldn't see at the time?

2. Is there an area of your life where focusing on what you've lost is blinding you to what God is doing right now?

3. Honestly examine your heart: has your wilderness made you more dependent on God, or more bitter? What would surrender look like this week?

4. Is there someone God sent to help you whom you've treated with expectation instead of gratitude? What would it look like to thank them this week?