Faithfulness in the Bible of God in the Midst of Murmuring and Complaining

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God IS faithful and we SEE His faithfulness in the Bible over and over again.

But many times, when we are in the midst of a problem or a trial, we can lose sight of this. We become myopic.

Have you ever wondered why you go through the same problems over and over again? Have you thought about why, like the children of Israel, you seem to keep walking around that same old mountain and repeating the same mistakes? There IS an answer!

The Bible tells us to ‘forget not all His benefits’. But we often DO forget. We do forget all the times He has seen us through, we do forget all His blessings, we do forget the times He gave us a miracle just when we needed it. And we do forget how many fiery furnaces He has been alongside us in.

So, how can we turn our focus back toward how God has worked things out on our behalf and for His glory when we go through tough times?

Read on and learn more!

Faithfulness in the Bible – We Have Short Memories!

When we go through difficult times in life, it can be easy to forget what the Lord has done to sustain us in the past. This was most definitely true of our heroes and heroines of scripture. It is not only us today who struggle with this problem.

We often become so hyper-focused on what we are experiencing in the present time that we forget how God has worked in our lives, our communities and in our world in previous times.

We can easily fall into murmuring and complaining about what we are experiencing RIGHT NOW and lose sight of all the things our Abba, our Father, has done for us previously.

The Children of Israel

The children of Israel did some murmuring but, for the most part, they just plain outwardly complained!

They complained to Aaron, they complained to Moses and they complained to God! They knew God was faithful! After all, He led them through the Sea to freedom from Pharaoh! But they complained nonetheless!

Exodus 16:2

There in the desert the whole community of the people of Isra’el grumbled against Moshe and Aharon.

CJB

That about sums it up!

Exodus 16:3:

The people of Isra’el said to them, “We wish Adonai had used his own hand to kill us off in Egypt! There we used to sit around the pots with the meat boiling, and we had as much food as we wanted. But you have taken us out into this desert to let this whole assembly starve to death!”

CJB

They basically said that God, the One who freed them from slavery in Egypt, should have just killed them off!

They looked back on their slavery, recalled all their food and comfort from their enslavers; a comfort they didn’t exactly find so “comforting” when they were in the midst of it, and longed for it.

So God sends them food! He sends manna!

They complain after a while of the manna. He sends them quail.

God is, over time, growing quite tired of their complaining.

Numbers 11:1

But the people began complaining about their hardships to Adonai. When Adonai heard it, his anger flared up, so that fire from Adonai broke out against them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

CJB

They looked back on their situation in Egypt, back to their slavery, and remembered it through the lens of the discomfort they were experiencing in the current moment of freedom.

The irony is that the duration of their discomfort was due to their own grumbling! They were in the desert wandering as long as they were because of their own actions!

And we can do that in our own lives. We can stay stuck in our situations because rather than trust that God is faithful and go through it with prayer, praise and contentment, we either moan and groan about it or try to make it happen ourselves.

When we see God work in our lives or answer prayer, we initially trust in Him and are filled with faith that He is with us and answers prayers!

But like the Israelites, the next time trouble arises or we experience a wilderness moment, we can easily forget all He has done and cry out again!

We tend to see our past tribulations through the lens of our current troubles and remember them more fondly because that pain has passed. 

We tend to see our past tribulations through the lens of our current troubles and remember them more fondly because that pain has passed! Click To Tweet

We should not live a life of faith that is based on seeing those miracle moments and only trusting Him when we do!

But like 2 Corinthians 5:7 says:

“…for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Even at times when our eyes are turned away and we don’t see how He is working in our lives, even when we feel our prayers aren’t being heard, we need to continue to have faith that He is still on His throne and He still hears us and He is actively moving in our situations!

And even if He is not, He is God and we aren’t and that my friends is the core of the issue. Who are we the clay to say to the potter why have you made me this way? (Isaiah 45:9)

God is Faithful But Will Not Reward Murmuring and Complaining

What is murmuring going to do for you? I think it is safe to say, God is faithful but He does not tolerate murmuring and complaining for very long. You will stay stuck if you make it a habit to complain about your problems versus facing them and taking them to God!

Forget not all His benefits as Psalm 103:2 says:

Bless Adonai, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits:

TLV

Forget not all He has done for you in the past and bless Him, thank Him! Don’t miss the lesson or the test God has for you in the trouble!

Seek Him in prayer and ask Him what He wants you to take from it. The great thing about God is we may fail by the world’s standards, but we never fail with Him.

Like Joyce Meyer says, we just get to keep taking the test over again!

So, stop walking around that mountain and take your cares, your failures, your mistakes to the One who tells you to cast them onto Him!

Faithfulness in the Bible But Murmuring and Complaining in Modern Life

Now it is an awesome thing to bring your troubles to others in prayer! You SHOULD seek prayer from others when you go through difficult times.

But there is a difference between sharing a situation in order to receive prayer, and murmuring and complaining about the situation.

Not sure if you are a murmurer? Well, let’s define it for you and see!

Dictionary.com defines it as

a mumbled or private expression of discontent

The online equivalent of that is vaguebooking! We are making a seemingly private complaint but in the hopes that someone, anyone, asks us to elaborate! We are unknowingly (or sometimes knowingly) seeking attention from others so they can commiserate with us and feel bad for us.

The online equivalent of murmuring is vaguebooking!  We are making a seemingly private complaint but in the hopes that someone, anyone, asks us to elaborate! Click To Tweet

Ever take to social media to air your dirty laundry? Ever pen one of those elusive “vaguebook” posts in an attempt to garner attention?

I get it! Sometimes when we go through some stuff we just want to feel like someone cares! So we pull that out of people by making them have to ask us what is wrong.

We want people to commiserate with us. We want people to tell us we are right to complain! And we want assurance…get ready for this one…that we are RIGHT!

Come on, can I get an amen?

The Israelites murmured and complained constantly and it kept them walking around that same old mountain for 40 years!

What mountain do you keep walking around?

The Israelites murmured and complained constantly and it kept them walking around that same old mountain for 40 years! What mountain do you keep walking around? Click To Tweet

Faithfulness in the Bible – Ways to Recall God is Faithful in Your Life

There are some ways you can recall the ways God has blessed you so you can be sure you are thanking God for the times He has answered your prayers or heard your cries!

This will help you when you are in the midst of trouble because you will be able to recall the wilderness the Lord brought you out of!

Ways to Remember That God is Faithful in Your Life

• Keep a Prayer Journal or War Binder
  Keeping a War Binder is a fabulous way to have, not only a powerful prayer life, but to have a visual record of all our Abba’s answers to prayer!
  
  Sue Nelson of Woman of Noble Character offers on creating a War Binder below! It is a beautiful way to remember answered prayer and also creatively worship Him!
  
• Keep a Gratitude Journal
  This is a daily tracker (or weekly or however long you want to space it out) of any praise reports or answers to prayer or just anything in general you are thankful for! Many of these things you can then transfer these into your War Binder later!
  
  But this helps you really focus on the good things God is doing in your life so, when things get difficult, you can recall all His blessings and how He has been faithful!
  
• Give the Lord Praise!
  We are quick to go on social media sometimes to vent or ask for prayer but let’s make social media a place of praise as well! Let’s fill social media with the praises of our Abba, our King!
  
  Be the stones that cry out! When everyone is asking ‘Where is God?” in our current troubled times, we can be the ones that shout out how He is working in the midst of them!
  
• Pray Daily
  Using the ACTS Method of Prayer can help you be sure you are focusing just as much on the Thanksgiving part of prayer as the petitions! Intercession is one way to remember His blessings!
  
  Staying in prayer each day and focusing on other people’s needs can help us take our minds off our our own troubles!
  

Repeating the Same Mistakes In Life – Own Them!

We all make mistakes! We are human after all! But the question is, do we learn from them or do we continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over again?

Do we blame other people for our mistakes or do we really own them? If you make a habit out of blaming other people or blaming your circumstances in life you miss out on the potential lessons God is trying to teach YOU!

God is faithful and He has a purpose for your mistakes! The only way we can see what God is doing through them is to own them ourselves!

God, Why Do I Keep Making the Same Mistakes? – Don’t Be Ashamed!

When we don’t accept them, we run the risk of repeating the same mistakes time and time again! It is ok to make them!! We shouldn’t be ashamed of mistakes and failures!

Failure means you tried! What matters is whether or not you let your failures defeat you and define you!

What matters is whether or not you let your failures defeat you and define you! Click To Tweet

We can wallow in our mistakes but that profits us nothing! Seeking God and the lesson He has for you in the mess is what helps us move on and avoid those same pitfalls next time! He is faithful when we seek Him!

Facing your failures and mistakes is so important if we want to move on from them and learn the lessons God has for us IN them!

If you keep experiencing the same problems in your life, it could be that you have avoided addressing them!

It could be that you chose murmuring and complaining about them instead!

So step away from that mountain you’ve been walking around! When God gives you a new beginning don’t repeat the same mistakes.

God is faithful to bring you through your trials if you trust Him, remember all He has seen you through and lean on Him! 

When God gives you a new beginning, don't repeat the same mistakes! Click To Tweet

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Taken from the Complete Jewish Bible by David H. Stern. Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Messianic Jewish Publishers, 6120 Day Long Lane, Clarksville, MD 21029. www.messianicjewish.net.

Tree of Life (TLV) – Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014,2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society.  Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.