Complaining...

I caught a few moments only of a sermon by John Bevere a few days ago, which really started me thinking. He was talking about the Israelites wandering around into the Wilderness, and that one of the reasons they did not get into the Promised Land was because of their complaining. He commented that it didn’t sound like such a huge deal compared with, say, the sin of idolatry. But John Bevere went on to say that actually complaining to God is another way of telling Him that we are dissatisfied with His plans for us, and that we have a better idea – the height of arrogance.

But then I know of people who cannot tolerate the concept of a God who has a plan for their life. They balk against feelings of being manipulated, or controlled, as they wish to have their own independence. Yet they are the first to blame Him whenever anything goes wrong.

Can’t have it both ways….

I also realise that there might be times when I do not complain - OUT LOUD. But my heart could tell a very different story. There are times in the privacy of my own room, even in my own head, that I rail against the way things are sometimes turning out. There are times when I put on my “patient face”, whilst inside I am seething at the sluggishness of the pace I believe God has set before me. And like Hagar, I try to figure out a way of “helping God out” by putting my own flesh-like plans and ideas before Him, as if somehow He had never considered them.

And sometimes I feel, like the Israelites, that it’s a case of “round she goes again, folks” – and I know that I will have to re-learn the discipline of waiting without complaining, in word, thought and spirit.

Pat’s Thought for the Day;
Have you challenged God lately? He is big enough to handle our tantrums, but tantrums are for children. If we truly seek to grow up in God, then we need to respond to His plans and His will for us as sons and daughter, not as babes