Grumbling and Complaining

I will confess that this is a problem that I wrestle with and I would appreciate your prayers for me to help me overcome this problem.  I think it is one of those sins that seems to sneak up on you and can be tolerated but must be dealt with, like any other sin.  Grumbling and complaining are of the flesh and reveal dissatisfaction and discontentment as well as a lack of patience and faith.  Believers who live this way should pray for deliverance and ask others to pray for them also.

One of the ways we fall into this is because we don’t get the things we pray for when we want them and we are so impatient that we strike out at the Lord and grumble and complain against Him.  It shows that we have a problem with believing God’s Word and trusting Him for our well-being.  It says this in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

It would be good to think about this; the Lord isn’t always trying to make us happy, but His plan is that in the long run we will become more like Him.  This doesn’t mean that everything that happens to us will be good because evil is present in this world, but even if evil is present in this world the Lord loves us and His plan is always to prosper us and not harm us but to give us a hope and a future.  Some of the problems we face may be because we allow our flesh to rise up and can dictate our prayer life and we selfishly ask for things that the Lord knows would not be in our best interest and may hinder what He plans for our lives, for He knows the beginning from the end and we don’t. 

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”  We need to get a hold of these truths and apply them to our lives.

Sometimes this behavior will result from discouragement, weariness and disappointments.  What would help is if we could learn to be content in every situation.  While I am typing this the Lord is speaking to me and hopefully everyone else that is reading this Tidbit and I hope this will help everyone that is caught up in this sin; this isn’t meant to be a rebuke but an encouragement.

Grumbling and complaining seem to be contagious and can negatively affect those around us, so we need to be very careful how we talk around other people.  Grumbling and complaining can bring about the Lord’s judgment, wrath and correction and none of us want that to happen.  If you are familiar with the Old Testament you probably know that the Israelites had a real problem with this.  

It says this about them in Numbers 21:1-9, “The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, ‘If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.’ And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah.

Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.’ So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”

I have always said there are consequences for sin and God’s chosen people experienced fiery serpents and some of them died as a result.  But God’s mercy and compassion was also present and He sent them a delivering and healing agent, but they didn’t realize the full extent of what was going on here for years later God would send another agent of deliverance and healing for all who would look to Him and believe that He was God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the one that would be the sacrificial Lamb who would die for the sins of the world and rise again.  Praise the Lord!!

So if this is speaking to you like it is to me, let’s confess it together and repent and ask the Lord to forgive us and accept whatever correction the Lord gives us, without complaint, and even rejoice that the good Lord loves us enough to correct us and forgive us, then let’s try our best not to complain and grumble any more.  Something to think about!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and have a super day!!  And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!