March 2

All who have had children have heard the same lines at one time or another: “I’m bored!” “When are we going to eat?” “When are we going to get there?” And all who have had children know how mad we can get when our children complain. It seems as though those who would have a legitimate reason to complain, rarely do, and those who don’t have a legitimate reason to complain, often do.
Imagine how God must have felt. The Israelites moaned when they were slaves in Egypt, and legitimately so (Exodus 1:11-22; 2:23-25; 3:7-10). God eventually delivered them from Egypt and from their slavery (Exodus 12:31-42). After crossing the Red Sea, the people went for three days without water. When they finally found some, it was bitter and they couldn’t drink it (Exodus 15:22-27). Again, they complained and God met their need.
Soon, thereafter, they began to complain because they had nothing to eat (16:1-3). They even began to say that life in Egypt was better than being free. Again, God provided for their needs with manna. After they moved on, they complained some more because they had no water (17:1-3). It is interesting how the people’s complaints eventually were too much for Moses and he began to imitate their whining by complaining to the Lord, himself (17:3&4; Numbers 11:10-15). Still later, the people complained when they didn’t like the selection of food the Lord provided and they wanted meat. Their memories seemed to be quite foggy, thinking it had really been good in Egypt when the opposite was true (Numbers 11:1-6). Even Miriam and Aaron caught this whining bug and they complained about Moses’ leadership (12:1-9). Eventually, God heard enough of their complaining and passed judgment on them. Their penalty would be death in the wilderness (14:1-4, 26-38).
The fact is, God is very good to each and every one of us. We have far more than we deserve. The fact is, God’s love for all of us endures even when we complain against Him (Psalm 100:5; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1). The apostle Paul made it very clear in the New Testament: “In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing, so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them” (Philippians 2:14&15). When we are filled with a heart of thanksgiving toward God, it will show in our attitude and even in the smiles on our faces. Our attitude will be in stark contrast to those of the world, who whine and complain because they think they are owed whatever they want. The world will be drawn to God through the attitude and the countenance of grateful people and not through the constant complaining of ungrateful people. So, let’s not be like our spiritual ancestors in the desert who continually complained against God. And let’s not be like worldly people who continually complain about everything. We are to be peculiarly different from the rest of the world and an obvious way we can do that is by living with gratitude for what we do have instead of moaning over what we don’t have.