Stop Complaining, Part 1 (Philippians 2:14) John MacArthur

Let me sort of ease in to our subject a little  bit, if I might. We’re in Philippians chapter   2 verses 14 through 16. And I titled the message,  “Stop Complaining.” There’s a reason for that,   and it’s fairly obvious if you look at verse 14  where Paul says, “Do all things without grumbling   or disputing,” which are really two ways of saying  stop complaining. And as I was thinking about this   very pertinent message about living your Christian  life without complaining, it became very apparent   to me that we live in a very complaining  society. And I really believe we are breeding   a generation of complainers, and they seem to  be getting worse with each passing generation. And as I’ve said to you on a number  of occasions, it is a curiosity to   me that the most indulged society is the most  discontent society, that the more people have,   the more they seem to be discontent with what they  have and the more complaining they seem to be. In   thinking about this, and there would be many ways  to approach it, I was just inadvertently flipping   on the radio this week and I heard a speech  by a sociologist that was quite curious to   me and quite interesting. The sociologist made  a very interesting point. He was talking about   the young people in our culture, talking about  their discontent, talking about their complaining  

attitude, their resistance to responsibility,  and how that nothing is ever the way they would   like it. And they go through life with a kind of  sullen discontent, kind of rejection of things the   way they are. And he had an interesting thesis.  What he basically said was this: that in many   ways this discontented generation of young people  is a product of small families. His thesis was   that where you have families where the average is  two or less, of course the average family now in   America is 1.7 children, which is kind of strange  to think about; as one brother said to his sister,   “I’m the one and you’re the point seven.” But  every family seems to come out at about 1.7.7.   We realize that families are getting smaller and  smaller and moving toward one child families,   if that. Most families in America have  either none, one, or two children.

Now, his thesis is that those kinds of  small families, in a materialistic society,   breed selfish, self-indulgent children. And he  gave a very simple illustration, some of you may   have heard the broadcast. He said, for example,  when you only have one child or two, they get up   in the morning and mother says to them, what would  you like for lunch? “Oh, I’d like peanut butter,   I’d like tuna,” or whatever. And so, she goes in  the kitchen and she makes that. And then, when   they go off to school she says, “Well, what would  you like for dinner when you come home?” “Oh, well   I’d like this, well, I’d like this.” “Okay, well  I’ll have that for you and this for you.” “By the   way, what time will you be home? What time should  I plan dinner?” And the kids say, “Well, about,   we’ve got to do, we’ll be home around 4:00, 5:00,  5:30 will be fine.” Okay. If you are raised in a   family of four, five, or six children, you get up  in the morning and you get handed a bag. And when   you leave the house your mother says to you,  “Dinner is at 5:30. You’re here, you eat.” And   when you go to a table in a small family and your  mother has broken her back to prepare some kind   of cuisine that she has taken out of an exotic  cookbook and you take one bite of it, the typical   one or two child family, the kids say, “I don’t  like it. I don’t want this.” In a family or five  

or six children, somebody says “I don’t like it,”  the kid next to him says, “Good,” and takes it. And the difference is where  you have a small family,   the system bends to the child.  Where you have a large family,   the child bends to the system. And so, what  you have, he said, is young people growing up   in an environment where the system bends to  them. And you have child-centered parenting. I know as a child myself, one of the reasons I  wanted to grow up was I wanted freedom. I lived   in a totally conformed society. I ate what  they gave me. I don’t ever remember going   shopping with my mother, ever. I wore whatever  she brought home. I never picked out a thing,   never. I don’t even remember going to a department  store clothing section as a young person.   My mother brought me what I needed, and I put it  on. And I conformed to the system. And I looked   forward to adulthood so that I could be free to  make my own choices. The reverse is true now;   children grow up controlling the family and they  don’t want to become adults because that means   conformity. Then, they have to go to work, and  nobody at work says, “Now, how would you like  

your office decorated? And what time would you  like to take a break for lunch?” Nobody says   that. They put you on an assembly line or they put  you in a place where you are forced to conform,   so what you have then is a generation of  young people who don’t want to grow up. And this sociologist said on the radio, you ask  the average high-school kid, what do you want to   do when you get out of school? What’s his answer?  “I don’t know.” You ask the average college   student, what do you want to do when you’re out of  college? “I don’t know.” And the reason he doesn’t   know is because he is postponing responsibility  because responsibility means conformity to   a system, whereas childhood for him has been  absolute freedom. Eat what you want when you want,   wear what you want when you want, and your mother  will take you anywhere you want to go whenever you   want. And so, you breed a generation of young  people who are irresponsible. And when they   do get a job, they get a job simply to finance  themselves so they can enjoy their indulgences,   and then when they’re 28 years old their license  plate says, “He wins who has the most toys.” And   the whole idea of adulthood is to collect toys,  boats, cars, vacation trips, on and on and on.

Now, what you have in this kind  of thing, said this sociologist,   is breeding moody discontent. And you build young  people who cannot conform and cannot be satisfied,   over-indulged kids who don’t want to be  adults, continue to push off responsibility;   they grow up in an environment they control.  They don’t like being controlled. And they   become discontent. They don’t want to take  responsibility. They don’t want to work. And   their adult years are sad. They become sullen,  very often, they become complainers. And I really   believe that he’s right in many cases. One  of the curses of our culture are overindulged   childish kind of adults who are really complainers  about everything. Nothing is ever enough. That’s   why we have a whole society with a critical  mentality, constantly attacking everything.

Now, I want you to know this has found its way  into the church. And the church is full of its   own complainers, and what is really sad is many  of them are run by their children’s discontent.   People leaving the church because their children  don’t like it. Can’t imagine such a thing,   unless their children control the family. The  church has its complainers. And here we are   with so much, so much. How in the world could  we possibly complain just because every little   thing in life isn’t exactly the way we want it?  Frankly, I would suggest to you that few sins are   uglier to me and few sins are uglier to  God than the sin of complaining. Frankly,   I think the church at large does much to feed this  thing by continuing to propagate this self-esteem,   self-fulfillment garbage that just feeds the  same discontent. There’s little loyalty. There’s   little thankfulness. There’s little gratitude. And  there’s very little contentment. And sadly, what   happens eventually is you’re griping, grumbling,  murmuring discontent is really blaming God because   after all, God is the one who put you where you  are. So, just know who you’re complaining against.

Now, having said all of that there is a sense in  which this complaining is part of our culture.   There’s another sense in which it’s not  new at all. Who was the first complainer   who ever walked the earth? Who was it? The first  complaining human being who ever walked was the   first human being whoever walked. And what  was Adam’s first complaint? “God, the woman   You gave me.” We are in this mess because of  this woman. He didn’t blame Eve; he blamed God.   Eve had nothing to do with it. God made Eve.  Adam wasn’t married; he woke up one morning he   was married. God could have picked anybody He  wanted, He picked her. Why? It’s God’s fault.   She led the whole human race in sin. The woman  You gave me, complaining. Cain complained to God   about God’s work in his life, Genesis 4:13 and  14. Moses complained to God for not doing what   he wanted Him to do when he wanted Him to do it,  Exodus 5:22 and 23. Aaron and Miriam complained   to God against Moses, His chosen leader and  their own brother in Numbers chapter 12. Jonah   complained to God because he was mad at God for  saving the Ninevites, Jonah chapter 4 verses 9   and 10. And it is still a popular pastime to  complain at God. And may I say that all of your   complaints in one way or another are complaints  against the providential purpose and will of God.

There’s a new book out called “Disappointment  With God,” very popular and being promoted   very heavily. It seems to me to  make complaining against God okay.   It’s sort of tries to define God as a lonely  misunderstood lover who is really trying to   work things out, but is really kind of a victim of  all of us and we shouldn’t complain against Him,   we ought to love Him. What a strange view of  God. He is not some lonely misunderstood lover;   He is the sovereign God who has ordered the  circumstances of all of our lives. And to   complain against God, to grumble against  God is a sin and we must see it as such. In the ninth chapter of Romans verse 20, “O man,  who answers back to God? The thing molded will not   say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like  this,’ will it?” Who in the world are you to   answer back to God? What an unthinkable thing to  do. And when describing the apostates in Jude 16,   it says they are grumblers finding fault  following after their own lusts. All they   want is what they want when they want it, they  don’t get it, they grumble and find fault.  

It’s characteristic sin of the proud and  it is characteristic sin of the wicked. Now, the tragedy of this particular sin is that  it is so contagious. Let me take a minute to   usher you back into the Old Testament, chapter 13  of Numbers. And I want you to follow me and we’ll   at least get through this little introduction  and I think set the stage for what is ahead of   us. This is really very, very interesting and  very important. We go back to the number one   illustration of grumbling, murmuring belly-aching  griping people the world has ever known,   namely whom? The Israelites. Numbers 13 just  gives us a little insight in to the potential   power of this attitude to spread. Verse 30 says,  “Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said,   we should by all means go up and take possession  of it for we shall surely overcome it.” Joshua,   you remember, and Caleb came back from spying  out the land and they said we can do it;   God is on our side, we can take it. “But the men  who had gone up with him said, we are not able to   go up against the people for they are too strong  for us.” Which is nothing but doubting God. “So,   they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report  of the land which they had spied out saying the   land through which we have gone in spying it  out is a land that devours its inhabitants,   and all the people whom we saw in  it are men of great size.” And then,   they said this, “Also we saw the Nephilim,  the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim,  

and we became like grasshoppers in our  own sight and so were we in their sight.” So, they come back with this complaining:  we’ll never do it, we can’t make it,   we can’t defeat them. It’s a bad report. It will  fail, it will never make it. Prophets of doom,   they are. And they’re really complaining against  the fact that God has told them to go in. Now, go over to chapter 14, watch what happens  in verse 36, “As for the men whom Moses sent   to spy out the land and who returned and made  all the congregation,” what? “Grumble against   him by bringing out a bad report concerning the  land, even those men who brought out the very   bad report of the land,” follow this, “died by a  plague before the Lord.” You know what the Lord   thinks of grumblers? He killed them because they  spread a brooding discontent against God. That’s   the issue. These people complained against God,  they complained against God calling them to go   into the land, they complained because the odds  were against them humanly speaking. And in their   disbelief and complaining against God, they caused  the whole nation to grumble, and as a result   God killed them with a plague. Grumbling really  spreads, and your discontent, and your critical  

spirit, and your grumbling attitude, and your  murmuring complaints will infect other people. Here were the children of God. They had been  led out of Egypt. God had parted the Red Sea   for them. They had seen ten plagues, miraculous  plagues at the point of their deliverance. And   as soon as they got out of the land of Egypt  they started to complain, and it never really   ended. Can I take you through a little trek?  Go back to Exodus and let’s go back to where   it started in the Exodus. Verse 11 of chapter  14, “Then, they said to Moses,” and they’re out   in the wilderness now. “Is it because there were  no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to   die in the wilderness?” They said, “What do you  bring us out here for, because there weren’t any   graves in Egypt?” Which is a mocking statement.  I mean, wasn’t there a place to bury us there?   You’re going to have to take us to the desert to  bury us? “Why have you dealt with us in this way,   bringing us out of Egypt?” Here’s the complaint,  it’s not like they want it. They’ve left Egypt,   it’s not the way they want it. Pharaoh is moving  after them, and they begin to complain. Of course,   God did a marvelous thing, He opened the Red Sea,  drowned Pharaoh’s entire army and saved them.

Go to chapter 15, they come through the Red Sea,  they’ve been delivered, and in that great 15th   chapter, the song of Moses sings of God’s great  deliverance. And it’s no sooner than they’ve done   that, verse 22, then Moses led Israel from the  Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of   Shur, and they went three days and they didn’t  have any water, three days. And they came to   Marah, they couldn’t drink the waters of Marah,  they were bitter therefore it was named Marah,   so the people what? Grumbled at Moses saying,  “What shall we drink?” Again, the same attitude.   Chapter 16, by the way, God provided water for  them. You remember it. Verse 27 of chapter 15,   12 springs of water and they camped there and  70 date palms and they had a feast. “Then,   they set out from Elim and all the congregation  of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of   Sin which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th  day of the second month after their departure from   the land of Egypt, and the whole congregation of  Israel grumbled against Moses.” Nothing is ever   enough. Part the Red Sea, provide the water, more  grumbling. “Would that we had died by the Lord’s   hand in the land of Egypt, we would have been  better off there when we sat by the pots of meat,   when we ate bread to the full.” Boy, this is a  crass crowd, right? They don’t care about anything  

but food. “We’re all going to die of hunger.” Boy,  they’re real deep, aren’t they? Real deep people.   “And the Lord provides again.” It’s absolutely  incredible. God sends quail, God sends manna down. Then, you come to chapter 17. “Then, all the  congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by   stages from the wilderness of Sin according to  the command of the Lord and camped at Rephidim   and there was no water for the people to drink.  Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and   said, give us water that we may drink.” See,  here’s more complaining, griping, grumbling,   quarreling, disputing. “Moses said to  them, why do you quarrel with me? Why   do you test the Lord? He is the one who has  ordained the circumstances. But the people   thirsted there for water and they grumbled  against Moses and they said, why now have   you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and  our children and our livestock with thirst?” Well, Moses is getting to the end of his rope. So,  Moses cried to the Lord, and I’m sure it was loud,   “What shall I do to this people? A little  more and they’ll stone me.” Some group,   huh? So, the Lord said, “Pass before the people,  take with you some of the elders of Israel,   take in your hand your staff with which you  struck the Nile and go. I’ll stand before you  

there on the rock at Horeb and you’ll strike  the rock and water will come out of it the   people may drink. Moses did so in the sight of  the elders of Israel, he named the place Massah   and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of  Israel, and because they tested the Lord saying,   is the Lord among us or not?” It doesn’t take very  long for people to forget the provision of God. Now, go over to Numbers for just a moment or  two because I want you to see this pattern. Now,   they’re at the other end of the 40 years.  They’re ready. Time is ready to go into   the land. And it’s not much different.  Verse 1 of chapter 11 of Numbers, “Now,   the people became like those who complain.”  You ought to underline that. “They became   like those who complain of adversity. Complaining  of adversity in the hearing of the Lord.” That’s   where their complaint really was directed. “And  when the Lord heard it His anger was kindled,   and the fire of the Lord burned among them and  consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.   The people therefore cried out to Moses and Moses  prayed to the Lord and the fire died out. So,   the name of the place was called Taberah  because the first of the Lord burned among   them.” 40 years later, and they have been  complaining the whole time about everything.

Verse 4 says, “The rabble who were among them  had greedy desires, and the sons of Israel   wept again and said, who will give us meat to  eat? We remember the fish and the cucumbers and   the melons and the leeks and the onions and  the garlic, and we’ve got nothing but manna,   crummy manna.” Day after day, this is typical  complaining. Chapter 14, God keeps on providing.   God sends the spies into the land. And what  happens? They come out, they give this evil   report, we can’t do it. Verse 27 of chapter 14,  “How long,” the Lord says to Moses and Aaron,   “shall I bear with this evil congregation  who are grumbling against Me? I have heard   the complaints of the sons of Israel which they  are making against Me. Say to them as I live,   says the Lord, just as you have spoken in  my hearing, so I will surely do to you.   Your corpses shall fall in this wilderness,  even all your numbered men according to your   complete number from 20 years old and upward  who have grumbled against Me.” God says I’ll   kill the whole lot of you, you’ll never enter  the promise land, and He did it. He did it.

Chapter 16 verse 41, “On the next day,”  what next day? The next day after God had   just punished some people for invading the  priesthood. The next day after God’s object   lesson about serious treatment of His law, “All  the congregation of the sons of Israel,” verse 41,   “grumbled against Moses and Aaron,  and they’re saying you are the ones   who caused the death of the Lord’s people.”  And the Lord was furious. Verse 45, He says,   “Get away from among this congregation  that I may consume them instantly. Then,   they fell on their faces.” And Moses said to  Aaron, “Take your censer and put in a fire from   the altar and take incense in and bring it quickly  to the congregation and make atonement for them,   for wrath has gone out from the Lord, the plague  has begun. Then, Aaron took it as Moses had   spoken, ran into the midst of the assembly, for  behold the plague had begun among the people so   he put on the incense and made atonement for  the people. And he took his stand between the   dead and the living and the plague was checked,  but those who died by the plague were 14,700,   besides those who died on account of Korah,”  where the ground swallowed them all up. God just   starts slaughtering thousands of them because  of their grumbling, complaining, discontent.

You find it again in chapter 20. You find it  again in chapter 21. I won’t read them to you.   I suppose the summary of all of it could  be in Psalm 106, just listen to this,   verse 25. It says, “They didn’t  believe in His word but grumbled   in their tents. They didn’t listen  to the voice of the Lord. Therefore,   He swore to them that He would cast them down in  the wilderness.” And that’s exactly what He did. One New Testament text to which I call  your attention, 1 Corinthians 10. In 1   Corinthians 10 verse 8, it says, “Nor let us  act immorally, don’t let us act immorally,   as some of them did,” that is the people in  the wilderness with Moses, that’s who he’s   talking about, “and 23,000 fell in one day,  nor let us test the Lord as some of them did,   and were destroyed by the serpents, you’ll  remember, the snakes.” Verse 10 is the key,   “nor grumble as some of them did and were  destroyed by the destroyer.” Now, you say, “John,   why did you read all of that?” I’ll tell you  why, look at verse 11, “These things happened to  

them as an example and they were written for our  instruction.” Now, beloved, I’ll put it simply,   for me not to go through that little history of  Israel would be to be unfaithful to that text.   That is the classic illustration of how God feels  about people who are discontent and malcontent and   complaining. It is a serious sin. It is directed  at God who has ordered your circumstances.   Complaining, and let me say it to you, and  here’s the definition I want you to hold on to:   complaining is the symptom of a deep-seeded  spiritual problem. And what is that problem?   Failure to trust God and failure to submit to His  providential will. Complaining is a deep-seeded   spiritual problem. It is not superficial. And at  its roots it is a failure to trust God and that   is a serious sin, because if you believe not God  you make Him a liar. And it is also a failure or a   rejection of His providential will. It is distrust  against God, and non-submission to His plan and   purpose in your life. It is a serious sin. God  hates it, and if you want to know how serious  

it is, He has killed people for it, and He says  that what He did to them, slaughtering them in the   wilderness, is an example to you in the end of the  age of how God feels about the sin of complaining. Listen to Lamentations 3:39. Write it down because  you’ll want to go back to it. Two little lines   but, boy, are they profound. “Why should any  living mortal or any man offer complaint in view   of his sins? Who in the world are you to complain  in view of your sins? What do you deserve?” You   deserve hell, so do I. What should I complain  about? Well, so that ugly theme of complaining   is the heart of this passage. And it is one that  God absolutely detests, the sin of complaining.

You say, well, now, let’s go back to Philippians  and see how it all fits. Why does he say in   verse 14, “Do all things without grumbling or  disputing?” Well, what does “all things” mean? Ah,   now we have the key. What does “all things”  refer to? Well, we just have to go back to the   verse before. In fact, we’ll go back to two verses  before. You remember these? “So then, my beloved,   just as you have always obeyed not as in my  presence only but now much more in my absence,   work out your salvation.” Do you remember our  discussions of working out your salvation?   That’s what he’s talking about. Whatever the  elements of working out your salvation are,   do them all without grumbling or disputing.  In other words, in all your Christian living,   in all that you do by way of obeying  God, in all that God is working in you   to will and to work for His good pleasure,  be sure you never complain. That’s the idea.

So, we now have then a companion to verses  12 and 13. Verse 12 says, “Work out your   salvation.” Verse 14 tells you the attitude in  which to do it. Can you get that? This is the   attitude in which you work out your salvation.  It is an obedience without complaint. You don’t   complain about what God calls you to do. You don’t  complain about what He asks you to do. You don’t   complain about the circumstances in which He asks  you to do it. Who are you to complain in view of   your sins? It is grace that you are not consumed,  and complaining is in itself a wicked proud sin. So, here you have a very general “work out your  salvation.” Why does he come down so narrow and   say, “Do all things without grumbling and  disputing?” Isn’t that very narrow and very   limited? No. That’s the attitude that fits the  general command. Why? Because life isn’t going to   always serve you up what you’d like. God’s going  to allow you to go through trials and testings   and difficulties not to make you gripe, but to  help you to pray, to teach you to trust, to teach   you to be grateful and thankful for what you have  because you can see the hard things as well. So,   this is not a narrow, isolated command, this  is a broad general attitude that in all things   related to your working out your salvation, you  do them without ever grumbling or ever disputing.

Now, those two words are very basic.  Grumblings is an onomatopoetic word;   that is, it sounds like what it means. The  word is goggusmos. Goggusmos, ruh-ruh-ruh.   It’s a grouchy, grumbly, onomatopoetic word. It  means a murmuring, an expression of discontent,   an expression of dissatisfaction,  grumbling, actually muttering in a   low voice. Ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh, you know. It’s,  by the way, the very word used in the Greek   Septuagint translation of Exodus and Numbers  where we read about the grumblings of Israel.   It is complaint expressed in a negative attitude.  It is an emotional rejection of God’s will. It is   an emotional rejection of God’s providence. It is  an emotional rejection of your circumstances that   comes through in mumbling, grumbling, griping,  verbiage. It is an emotional rejection of the   circumstances God has chosen for your life  and the requirements He has for your conduct.

And then, there’s a second word, disputings.  Dialogismos, dialogue we get from it. It means   questionings, criticism. It is now  an intellectual debate with God. The   first one is an emotional belly-aching. The  second is an intellectual debate with God.   You want to argue with God about why things are  the way they are. Or you want to argue with God   about why you have to do what you have to do. Or  you want to argue with God about why you’re in   the circumstance you’re in, the marriage,  the job, the singleness, the residence,   whatever it is. Or even the church, for that  matter. Arguing with God out of discontent,   debating with God because you’ve got a better  idea. While the first word means to just grumble,   gripe complain, murmur, almost an  emotional guttural kind of thing. So, Paul is saying, look, in working out your  salvation the basic attitude is an attitude that   does not complain. Why? You’re living in a very  fallen world. You’re living in the fallen flesh.   It isn’t always going to be the way you like  it, the people around you aren’t always going   to be the way you’d like them. The circumstances  aren’t always going to be euphoric and perfect.   It’s not going to be an idealistic world. You  work out your salvation and in all the things   that you do, and in all the circumstances you  find yourself, don’t ever complain because God   hates that, and He has judged it severely as  an example to you of how He feels about it.

James even speaks about it, chapter 5,  isn’t it, verse 9, “Do not complain,   brethren, do not complain against one another  that you yourselves may not be judged, behold,   the judge is standing right at the door.” You know  what the picture is? It’s like a little kid in his   room, a little brother talking to his sister, and  he’s saying, “Boy, I hate the way Mom handles us,   I hate the way Dad does this,” and what he  doesn’t know is Dad is standing at the door.   And when you’re belly-aching and complaining to  God about how it is, and how your life is, and how   your kids are, and how your circumstances are, and  how this and how that, just know that the Lord who   hates complaining is standing at the door. Serious  sin, serious sin. Not only for Paul, but obviously   James felt compelled to remind us as well. Even  Peter did in 1 Peter 4:9, he says, “Be hospitable   to one another without complaint.” Don’t complain  against other people either. James alluded to   that, as does Peter. And if you complain against  God you’re going to be miserable to be around   cause you’re going to complain with everybody  else, too. It will show up there at that level.

So, the command is pretty simple. Do all things  without complaining or without grumbling or   disputing. Now, we’re going to stop there.  That’s the main point. There are three reasons,   three absolutely thrilling and wonderful and  practical reasons, we’ll look at those next   time. But I don’t want you to tune me out. Listen  now, would you do this? Try your best to make it   through today without complaining about something.  Would you do that? And just make a note every time   you complain, and you will find that for many  of you it is a way of life. And it is frankly so   utterly habitual that you probably don’t even  realize what a dominant characteristic it is.   And then, remember Lamentations, would  you please? Just remember Lamentations   3 and 39 and memorize it: why should any  living mortal or any man offer complaint   in view of his sins? What do you think you  deserve? Work on it today, will you? And   we’ll try to do it even without the motive. We’ll  get that next time. Let’s bow together in prayer.

Lord, it’s so sad in the society in which we  live to realize that the more we have the less   we appreciate. And that’s true even in our  spiritual life. I’ve seen it at Grace Church.   I can remember in the early days, Lord, when You  were beginning to do a mighty work here. Everybody   was so thankful, everybody was so appreciative,  everybody was so thrilled and so blessed. And now,   Lord, after years of faithfulness and years of  ministry and years of goodness and years of grace,   all of a sudden many people begin to complain.  How can it be? How can people forget? How can   we forget? How can your children be walking  through the Red Sea on dry land and three days   later complaining to You? How can they receive  water out of a rock and a few days later be   complaining to You? How can they be given manna  from heaven and be complaining that life isn’t   the way it ought to be? How can they be headed  to the promised land and griping because all   the circumstances don’t fit their particular  preference? O Lord, it’s the fallenness in us,   and our complaining becomes so much a habit that  we don’t even realize it. Help us to see it,   help us to hear with our ears the complaints of  our mouth. Help us to understand the disputing   in our heart when we question You, and why we  must do what we must do and why it is the way  

it is. And Father, help us to learn the example  of Israel and to see that those who grumbled,   perished; those who grumbled were judged. And help  us to know that You’re still standing at the door,   and You will still chasten those who  sin the sin of complaining. And, Lord,   help us to come to grips with maybe the fact  that many of the problems in our life are the   chastening that You’ve brought upon us for a  complaining spirit. Help us to be grateful,   O God, for we deserve nothing, absolutely nothing,  and yet You’ve been so good to us. Help us to do   all things in working out our salvation without  grumbling, without that emotional discontent,   and without that intellectual disputing with You  as if we had a better way. But Lord, when things   are difficult, may we turn to prayer, turn to  Your Word, and may we turn to praising You,   and in that context find the purpose for which You  bring us the difficulty, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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