Complaining: How You Are Blocking Your Trust in God

When I don’t like something, complaining about it is my default response. Sometimes it’s out loud. Other times it’s in my head. Are you also like that? A friend challenged me to explain why God doesn’t like it when we complain. The answer is so interesting, I had to share it with you. I’m going to define complaining as voicing your discontent out loud or in your head.

We’ve all heard stories about the children of Israel but surprisingly, they’re not the only murmurers in God’s book. I want to look at just five reasons why discontent is so distasteful to God.

Why We Shouldn’t Complain

If we’re complaining, we’re not meditating on God’s word. Jehovah told us to meditate on His word day and night (Joshua 1:8). We should constantly be reading the Bible. Talking about what we’ve read and thinking about it. When we’re busy being miserable, that all goes through the door.

Complaining robs us of our strength. When we search the Psalms, we find many examples of God’s people pouring their hearts out before Jehovah until they’re physically weak.

One example of this is Psalms 77:1-9 where Asaph complained until his spirit was overwhelmed… He grumbled until he passed out.

When we’re so focused on our self, we forget to focus on Christ: the source of our strength.

What right do we have to complain?

Jeremiah asked a hard question in Lamentations 3:39 – why should a living man complain when punished for his sins?

We were created and given everything to meet our needs. Yes, maybe we don’t have enough by the world’s standards or even our own, but-

Sometimes we forget that we can’t do anything without God. John 15:5. The very breath that we take comes from God. Even though we don’t do what we’re supposed to do, God still shows us mercy.

Complaining becomes a culture and soon we can do nothing else. Remember the children of Israel? I know what you’re thinking: “Finally!” Talk about a bunch of whiners. They complained while they were in Egypt (Exodus 3:7, 5:21).

They murmured in the wilderness (Exodus 14:11-12). They didn’t like the water (Exodus 15:24, 17:3) or the food (Exodus 16:3, Numbers 11:5-6).

They became such a nation of grumblers that by the time Jesus began His ministry they couldn’t see him as the Messiah. They only saw all the rules that Jesus broke – another thing to complain about.

Complaints block our trust in Jehovah and leads to forgetfulness. Like the children of Israel we forget God’s faithfulness and all the wonderful things He does for us every day.

• We forget His grace.
• We forget His mercy.
• We forget His omnipotence.
• When we forget all that Jehovah has done for us His children.
• We forget His awesomeness and wallow in our impotence.

Let’s Pray

Almighty God, we surrender this complaining spirit to You and pray that You’ll replace it with one of praise. Help us to praise you more for the things You’ve given us and complain less about the things we don’t have. Help us to give honor and glory to your name. Amen.

Let’s Chat

Do you sometimes display a complaining spirit? How do you stop the grumbling when it starts?