Dangers of Murmuring and Complaining
Category: City Pastor's Teachings
Many of us murmur and complain too much and too often.
Instead of thanking God for our situations we would stay and grumble and
complain all the much that we can.
God hates our complaining and grumbling. He is displeased with our continuous
ingratitude.
READ: Prayer For Deliverance From Enemies
In Exodus He punished the Israelites severally for their complaining and
grumbling in the wilderness and they spent 40 years traveling for a journey
that should last only 40 days. How awesome!
In the book of Jonah 3 and 4. After Jonah had preached to the people of
Nineveh and they repented, God decided not to punish and destroy them has He
initially planned to.
This annoyed Jonah and he was very upset, “This change of plans greatly upset
Jonah, and he became very angry. So complained to the Lord about it. “Didn’t I
say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to
Tarhsish! I knew that You are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get
angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from
destroying people. Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if
what I predicted will not happen” Jonah 4:1-3
READ: The Hypocrites and Pretenders
Just like many of us today, we grumble and complain about our situations and
positions. We forget that there are many people that we are better than,
regardless of our circumstances.
Some people lose their jobs and grumble and complain forgetting some of their
college mates and friends that have not had jobs in several years!
People complain that they have not been promoted at their places of work
forgetting that some of their colleagues were recently sacked at their places
of work.
READ: Hour of Breakthrough
God hates our complaining. He wants us to be grateful to Him at all times. The
Lord replied Jonah saying “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
The same way He is asking us today: Are you angry about your present
condition? Have you forgotten that many people slept last night and are dead
this morning!
Think of the people sleeping quietly in their rooms taking siesta on a Sunday
afternoon and a faulty plane crashed into their building and killed them out
of no fault of theirs.
READ: What It Means To Be Saved?
Rather than be happy that He didn’t kill and destroy the people of Nineveh as
he planned to because they repented, Jonah was angry and went to the east side
of the city and made a shelter to sit under waiting to see what would happen
to the city even though he was aware that God had forgiven the people of
Nineveh and would no longer destroy the city.
God was still kind to him, he made coverage for him under the sun and Jonah
was happy.
The same way God makes provision and protection for us even when we don’t
deserve it, but instead of us to be grateful we will sit somewhere grumbling
and complaining that we lost our job or car to accident forgetting that it is
God that spared our life from death that could have happened during the
accident that destroyed the car, but we prefer to complain about the damaged
car instead of thanking God for sparing our lives!
“But God arranged for a worm! (A circumstance to punish us for grumbling) The
next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it
withered away (the problem overwhelms us). And as the sun grew hot, God
arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his
head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than
living like this!” he exclaimed” Jonah 4:7-8
READ: The Adulteress and Prostitute
Like many people contemplating suicide, they think suicide is better than
their current condition. They think they know better than God who has
permitted the condition and so they prefer suicide. What a pity!
I say ‘what a pity’ because people fail to realize that suicide is like
committing murder. The only thing is that you are the murderer and also the
victim of murder unlike in the murdering of a third person where someone else
is involved. You are the only one involved in this.
The bad thing with suicide is that while a murderer can still become save if
he repents and has the chances of going to heaven, the suicidal has no chance
for repentance because he died as soon as he committed the murdering of
himself. He has no chance of repenting and hell therefore is the direct domain
for him.
READ: When You are Successful, You Will Be Envied!
Jonah was supposed to be grateful to God for providing him a shelter when he
did not ask for it nor deserved it. But Jonah was ungrateful like most of us
are.
Again, God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant
died?” “Yes”, Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!” Jonah 4:9
Most of us that had read about Jonah’s story probably did while we were in
primary school and our understanding then was that Jonah’s sin was that of
disobedience to God. No, Jonah actually sinned by disobeying God, but after he
repented God forgave him, but is final sin which he did not repent of before
he died was that of unrepentant, grumbling and complaining!
READ: Why You Should Always Be Yourself
Just like many of us, we complain and grumble about everything. My plead to
you this morning is to ask God for forgiveness and stop your complaining and
grumbling because God is not pleased about it.
I pray that God will give you the grace to understand this message, amen.
Praise God!
Note: All quotes are from the New Living Translation of the Holy Bible except
otherwise stated.
READ: Beware of The Company You Keep
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