Isn’t that what we all want — to have a positive outlook on life? To be marked by gratitude instead of grumbling? Yet complaining comes so naturally to us, doesn’t it? It’s part of our sinful bent, despite the many blessings that God has given us.
Shortly after God had miraculously rescued his people from their slavery in Egypt, “the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (Ex. 16:2) because they were hungry. They even began to talk about how good they had it back in Egypt (talk about a distorted memory!), and how they wished the Lord would have just killed them there.
Moses and Aaron told the people that by grumbling against their leaders, they were really grumbling against God, and that God heard their grumbling. Yet God in his grace would provide food and water for them in the wilderness. Given all that God had already done for them, why would they have doubted this in the first place?
Surely once God provided for them, the people would have learned to trust God and be grateful from that point on, right? Nope. In the very next chapter, “the people grumbled against Moses” again. They even accused him of leading them and their children out into the wilderness only to kill them with thirst. They were even ready to stone him! Once again God graciously provided for his ungrateful people.
But eventually God’s patience grew thin. At the beginning of Numbers 11 we’re told,
And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
People died as a result of the Lord’s discipline! How God hates grumbling!
In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit applies Israel’s experience in the wilderness directly to us, saying,
with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Now these things took place as examples for us…. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did…, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed…. (1 Cor. 10:5-6, 9-10)
When I was a kid, the Christian singer and songwriter Patch the Pirate came to our church and taught us a song that came to mind as I thought about grumbling. The lyrics go like this:
In country town or city,
Some people can be found,
Who spend their life in grumbling,
At everything around
O yes they they always grumble
No matter what they say
They spend their lives in grumbling
And they grumble night and dayOh they grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Grumble on Thursday too
Grumble on Friday,
Saturday, Sunday
Grumble all the whole week through.They grumble in the city
They grumble on the farm
They grumble at their neighbours; they think it is no harm.
They grumble at their husbands,
They grumble at their wives.
They grumble at their children,
And their grumbling never dies.
Will Bowen, author of the bestselling book, A Complaint Free World, has said that complaining is like bad breath — you notice when it comes out of someone else’s mouth, but not when it comes out of your own. Yet it has been estimated that the average person complains 15-30 times each day — and that’s only counting complaints that we express out loud. How much more grumbling goes on in our heart?
The psalmist proclaimed,
Blessed be the Lord,
Who daily loads us with benefits,
the God of our salvation!
- Psalm 68:19 -
God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ (Eph. 1:3). Paul tells believers, “Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God” (1 Cor. 3:22-23). So Scripture says, “Give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20).
An anonymous poet once wrote,
Forgive me, God, when I whine.
I’m blessed indeed, the world is mine.
Because this is true, Paul writes, “If there is anything worthy of praise, think about such things” (Phil. 4:8). Let’s make it our business to be a grateful people. Let’s get rid of our grumbling and give thanks instead.
Count your many blessings,
Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done.