Manna: Food in the Wilderness

And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
Exodus 16:14

The Israelites had not been long out of Egypt before the complaints started; firstly in the Wilderness of Shur when they came across bitter, undrinkable water (Ex.15:23) and then in the Wilderness of Sin because they had no meat to eat (Ex.16:2,3). How soon they had forgotten the awfulness of their lives in Egypt and the wondrous deliverance that had been brought to them by the mighty hand of the Lord.
Perhaps you find yourself in a similar situation, life seems hard, you don't have all the luxuries of life that the people of the world are enjoying, perhaps some affliction is robbing you of quality of life and you have been wondering why God has brought you to such a place and now you are even starting to complain and think that life could be better if you had never become a Christian in the first place.
Well God does have a purpose in it all! Look at Deuteronomy 8:2,3:

And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which neither you nor your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

It does us good to remind ourselves that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. If you belong to Him then He is working out His wonderful purpose in your life, and He has your eternal benefit in sight. That wilderness that you find yourself in has been allowed by the Lord so that you will learn to trust Him implicitly in every circumstance, and that you will see how worthless the things of the world are in light of the true riches of heaven. There are priceless lessons to be learnt in your wilderness !
What I want you to notice above all else is that the Lord provides manna in the wilderness, in other words He will keep you alive, He will provide you some heavenly treasure to sustain you in your wilderness. That treasure may be something physical as it was for the Israelites, if you are suffering financial hardship or extreme circumstances, then He will certainly provide for you. The treasure though is more likely to be a spiritual one - a new sense of His love and care for you; a deeper appreciation of spiritual truths; a greater dependancy upon Him; a renewed commitment to service; the purging of some sinful habit; the letting go of worldly desires. The great riches that unfold as you feed yourself on the spiritual manna will soon make any physical discomfort seem very light in comparison, remember the Lord Jesus could go forego physical food for the far more satisfying food of doing His Father's will (Jn.4:32-34).
A great temptation in a wilderness time is to be like the Israelites and start looking back to a "better time", but they became subject to self-deception, forgetting the horror of life in Egypt. We too can deceive ourselves in such a way, there is no better place to be than where you are with God right now. He never let His people down, for forty years He sustained them in the wilderness, providing for their needs. He will do the same for you. Resist the temptation to complain or to look back, instead start looking for the manna that He is providing for you, and feed upon it, you will find that you are much richer than you could ever have imagined.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul.
Mk.8:36