In Philippines 02:14,15, we read “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.” We are living in a world which is full of murmuring & complaining. We see this in our offices & when we deal with people that this attitude/spirit is present everywhere. It may manifest in different ways for eg; a husband complaining about his wife, a wife complaining about her husband, people complaining about their governments , workers complaining about their bosses etc. It is not something that started in the present ages, as it was there from the beginning itself. We can see the spirit of complaining in the book of Genesis 03:12 where Adam complains about his wife “The man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate”
It is very important, as a Christian, how we see things in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. If we deal with the people of this world it is very natural that this spirit can come into our life as well. We have to take this very seriously and try to prove ourselves innocent in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. For this we have to make an effort to live without complaining, only then God can make us innocent. This should be the cry from our heart. The Bible says murmuring and complaining is a very serious sin. We have seen God strictly dealing with the kind of people who have had this attitude. In Revelation 14:4-5, we see “These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless”. Like it says here, we have to safeguard ourselves from this and guard our mouth so that God may see us blameless.
In most of our work places we can see towards the end of a project we make a study called “Lessons Learned”. The whole idea of this is to have a clear idea about the mistakes committed and not to repeat the mistakes learnt from the completed projects. We can see the same in the Bible. We can learn lessons from the Israelites about their spirit of always complaining even after experiencing God’s faithfulness. They murmured and complained in between. We can see that in 1 Corinthians 10:5,6, “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved” and in Verse 10 says “Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.” So it is very clear that because of their murmuring spirit, they were destroyed and it will destroy us also spiritually if we have this murmuring spirit.
We can also see how God dealt with the people who murmured and complained in Numbers 11:1-3. Here we see how God dealt with them. It says “Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD; and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. The people therefore cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD and the fire died out. So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.” Here we see God sent fire because of this spirit of complaining.
In Exodus 16:6-8, we read “So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?” Moses said, “This will happen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the LORD hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the LORD.” We have to understand that this act is a complaint against God. If we are complaining about our God given husband or wife, government etc, it is actually against God. It is God who gave us all of these. In Mathew 12:36-37 it says “But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” We have to give an account if we are careless with our tongue by our words we will be justified and condemned. In James 3:5,6 we read “So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell.” We have other great examples as well. In Job 3, we can see Job complaining and in chapter 38 we can see the answers for his complaints and in chapter 42:1-6, we can see a complete surrender of Job. Then Job replied to the LORD – “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;I will question you, and you shall answer me.My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job believed the absolute sovereignty of God and he understood his mistakes and he repented. So we need to understand that everything that happens is under God’s knowledge and authority.
Psalms 73:1-10 “Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant As I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death, And their body is fat.They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace;The garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore his people return to this place,And waters of abundance are drunk by them.” In Isaiah 6:5 also we read, “Then I said,“Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips,And I live among a people of unclean lips;For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” If we have this attitude and come to God and say Lord I am a man with unclean lips and I live among such people, and ask God for help. He is a God who touches our mouth and take away our iniquity.
How we can overcome this spirit of complaining? It is by thanksgiving. Let us ask God to fill us with the spirit of thanksgiving. Let us also have repentance from this spirit of complaining and murmuring.We read about thanksgiving in 2 Thessalonians 05:18 “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. We are called to give thanks to the Lord in every situation of our lives. Complaining and murmuring is just the opposite of thanksgiving. In Ephesians 05:20 we see “Always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father”. In Ephesians 05:18 it says “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit”. We need to be filled with the power of Holy Spirit to get rid of this spirit and be an overcomer and then we should be able to have clear conscience to say “All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them” (Proverbs 8:8)
We should also be eager to ask God to get the tongue of a disciple as mentioned in Isaiah 50:4, “The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples,That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning,He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.” So let our prayer be as in Philippians 02:14-15, to “do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.”
May God bless all of us.
