Come Up Here And See

I thought that I would be writing a post about complaining because there are many scriptures about complaining but many of those scriptures include the words murmuring and grumbling. However, the definition of complain from Merriam Webster did not resonate with me the dislike that I have when I hear someone complaining. I asked the Holy Spirit what am I missing, and He guided me to look up the definitions of grumbling and murmuring.

Complain – to express pain or discomfort – Merriam Webster

Murmur – a half-suppressed or muttered complaint – Merriam Webster

Grumble – verb – complain about something in a bad-tempered way – Oxford dictionary

When I read the definition of grumbling it reminds me of nails screeching on the chalkboard which just makes your body quiver and not in a good way, you just want it to stop.

But when you look at what God says about complaining, murmuring, and grumbling, that is the reason that I truly dislike them, and I do not want to even be complaining.

Complaining alone which is to express pain and discomfort which is something we see that David did in the Psalms but David did not stay in a complaining situation, he always finished by bringing praise and thanksgiving to the Lord because the Lord God Almighty is the only one who can handle our pain expressions and He is the only one who can provide the comfort and answers that we need.

The major problem is when we take that expression of pain, our complaint on the road to murmuring and grumbling and that my friend is the road to hell. This is when we have turned from any belief in the LORD and no longer believe that God Almighty and He alone is able to heal, provide, sustain. Also, when we have turned to grumbling, we have stepped into this dangerous realm of no reverential awe or fear of the Lord.

“To fear God is to abstain from any form of complaining, murmuring, or grumbling.” John Bevere from his book The Awe of God.

The Lord does not want us to even step one toe on that slippery slope because He knows that that slope will become a mudslide where all is lost.  

One only must look at the millions of Israelites that did not make it into the Promise Land after travelling around the mountain for forty years because of murmuring, grumbling, and complaining. Only two believers, Joshua and Caleb walked into that promise land from the original ones who walked through the Nile out of Egypt. Even the great deliverer of that time, Moses did not make it into the promise land.  

Numbers 14:27 ESV “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me.

Exodus 16:2 ESV And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness,

Psalm 106:25 ESV They murmured in their tents and did not obey the voice of the Lord.

God in His amazing mercy lets us read these stories, these truths in the Old Testament and He also gives us warnings in the New Testament so that we will not fall prey to those same ugly traps.

1 Corinthians 10:10 ESV Nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

1 Peter 4:9 ESV Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

James 5:9 ESV Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

Jude 1: 16 CEB These are faultfinding grumblers, living according to their own desires. They speak arrogant words, and they show partiality to people when they want a favor in return.

My own personal story is that people who work with me and most others know that I hate complaining and I will tell them that is enough. I have stood fervently and said Stop it, no more complaining. I do not even want to be around complainers and at times I have just walked away because I know the dangers of listening to complaints.

If I do complain what has happened is that I have not grabbed my thoughts and taken them captive to Jesus. What then happens is that those thoughts will turn into judging, bitterness, and if I am not careful depression. Complaining thoughts are dangerous and if you do not seize them, they will lead you to your grave. You will not be an encourager to anyone, it is impossible, you will not be fun to be around, you will not be joyful, you will not have the fruits of the Spirit and you have given over your mind to the enemy. What happens is that complaining, murmuring, and grumbling blocks your destiny.

Can you even imagine the frustrations that Joshua and Caleb and the self-control that they had when the other ten spies would not believe but only complain. Man, I would have wanted to take my sword or staff or whatever and clobber them. But Joshua and Caleb stood firm and were blessed to enter the Promise Land, the only two of the men who had come out of Egypt. My goodness I want to enter the promises that God has for me and for my family, so I do not want to be complaining, murmuring, or grumbling.

So many times, we give complaining, murmuring, and grumbling another word so we do not think we are complaining, or we will just sort of laugh at ourselves not realizing how serious complaining is. Complaining is sin, it separates us from God Almighty and just like any other sin, it leaves us filthy, and you can feel that filth on yourselves at first but if you continue complaining you will dull your senses that you do not recognize that you have sinned or complained.

Comedies that we have seen on tv make you laugh at people who grumble or complain thereby reducing the dangers that complaining put us in. They have desensitized us.

Others who do not want to complain will not want to be around you, if you have wise friends, they will call you out on it or some will just stop being around you because complaining at any level will stop you from stepping into your destiny.

The Entitlement society that we live in do a lot of complaining about everything. They believe that everyone should be doing their work, providing for them and so on and they will complain if they are not.

The Word of God tells us that no matter what we are doing we are to stay away from complaining so that we can stay pure and that the only way that we cannot be conformed to this world is to renew our mind with the Word of God.

Phil 2:14-16 TLB  ¹⁴ In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing ¹⁵ 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 people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights, ¹⁶ holding out to them the Word of Life. Then when Christ returns, how glad I will be that my work among you was so worthwhile.

Romans 12:2 NASB  ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

I want all of us to reach the destination, the promise land, the calling that God has on our lives but for any of us to reach that promise there are sins that we must avoid at all costs and these three, complaining, murmuring, and grumbling are three of the greatest that I see in the Western culture. We must recognize that if we do not avoid these then we will be cutting our lives short in so many ways.

Holy Spirit I pray that You would guide us, make us more aware of complaining thoughts, complaining speeches that we fall trap to. I pray that we would see like you see Lord Jesus the trap before so that we can avoid those negative thoughts that we have become desensitized to so that we are guarding our thoughts and our words to Your pleasure Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.