I am often perplexed at the level of murmuring and
complaining that is found coming from the body of Christ. We are all exposed to the murmurings and
complaining of others. It seems to be
the mindset and attitude of the population in general. Believers are constantly targeted and exposed
to complaining as others seek guidance or assurance from them. The danger in this is that it can be and
often is contagious. It is so much so
that we often find this as one of the prominent behavior patterns found amongst
the members in the Body of Christ itself.
As believers, we have so much to be thankful for and appreciative of
because of the work of Christ in our hearts and life yet they can find that
they can easily succumb to the wiles of this sinful behavior. I know that I should not be too surprised by
this since murmuring and complaining was one of the problem traits of the
children of Israel. Pride and selfish dissatisfaction
is often the underlying sin that feeds this behavior. The desire to please self over and above
anyone else is a cause that motivates this type of communication. The fact still remains that it is sadly a very
common trait that is found within the family of God. What makes this extremely disheartening is
that this behavior is neither a presentable trait for a believer nor is it ever
right to do so.
A short while back I had the unfortunate opportunity to have
to overhear a conversation by two people in ministry as they griped, whined and
complained about a third and the third person had no recourse or rebuttal
because they weren’t there. After a
couple of minutes or so I had enough and since my only real option was to
remove myself, I quietly did so. I
relocated myself to another area but not out of earshot, I could not get far
enough away from the sound of their voices and their continuous complaining. Their constant whining and complaining about this
third party is all that I heard for over fifteen minutes. Nothing I could do would drown out the
constant drone coming from their conversation.
Then in a frustrated moment of prayer, a sad resounding truth ran
through my heart and my mind. It was as
if God was speaking directly to me and I did not like the words that I heard
which were, “I can’t get away from them either and now I hear your complaint as
well.” Ouch! The thought struck me straight
through the heart, He not only heard their complaining, but I had subjected God
to my complaint as well. The sad truth is
that God hears everybody as they complain.
Our Heavenly Father has an ear that is tuned in for the call
of His children and unfortunately when His children complain and we all do, I
am not sure that He tunes that out.
There is no mention in the Word that He does so. If you do a quick word search, you will find
33 references of murmuring. If you take
a closer look, you will find some 16 passages alone that speak of Israel’s
murmuring while they were in their wilderness journey, while they were under
God’s direct care. God cannot remove
Himself from the constant murmuring and complaining of all of His
children.
With that said, I am once again perplexed because, I have no
idea of how He does it. How does our
loving God who longs to hear the voices of his children in prayer filter
through all of the whining, griping and complaining of His children? I do not know how He does it! I am further perplexed in thought in that if
He does not do so, how does He filter through it all?
Along
the same lines I wonder what often compels believers to think that they have
the right to whine and complain as they do.
Do they not know that every word spoken against another believer is a
word spoken against the body of Christ and thus grieves Holy Spirit? The Scriptures clearly tell us that our words
should edify and lift up to the building up of the body not the tearing down of
the body. “Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that
it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:12) and “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers. (30) And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye
are sealed unto the day of redemption. (31) Let all bitterness, and wrath, and
anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:”
(Ephesians 4:29-31). As we can see from this Scripture passage
above, the Bible clearly warns us against grieving the Holy Spirit; do we not
realize that is exactly what is being done when a believer speaks out against another
believer in Christ? Whenever we gripe
and complain saying we know better than another believer we are in a sense
telling God that He doesn’t know what He is doing. I find that to be dangerous ground. “But now hath God set the members every one
of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” (1
Corinthians 12:18) I do believe that
God places individuals in whatever position they hold and when another believer
speaks out against them they are in turn speaking out against God. Murmuring and complaining about other believers
is to do so against the Lord. We are
warned in the Word of God that we are to “… bring into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ” (2
Corinthians 10 5b), we also see that Jesus tells in Matthew 12:36, “But I say unto
you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment.” They wonder
why they are dissatisfied, perhaps it is because they are at odds with the
Father. They wonder why they are
disgruntled, it is because of sin. They
complain that things are not going their way yet they fail to see that the Scriptures
clearly teach them that we are to, “Do all things without murmurings and
disputings:” (Philippians 2:14).
I am reminded of a quote I read from
John Piper which said, “Sin is what we do when we are dissatisfied with God.” Are we so selfish that we are willing to sin
against a Holy God because we want our way and cannot get it?
I am often in awe when I think about all that God does in
the lives of His children. I cannot understand
how He does not get frustrated after a few minutes of listening to a believer
as they whine and complain about another brother or sister in Christ and yet
God does hear every one of us. I am glad
that God does hear us because I rely on the fact that He hears and answers
prayer. But in the mist of all the
prayers that are being offered up, intermingled with the pleas for help and the
cries for salvation at any given time He also hears bickering, whining,
complaining and crying about another brother or sister in Christ. It must not be so. When we are close to someone who is doing so,
we must help them to curb their complaining by turning it over to Christ not
encourage their pity party. As we noted
earlier we are commanded to do all things without murmuring and disputing. If we are to be true representation of Christ
here on earth, then we must do so without complaining. I'm not talking about criticism, I am
referring to complaining especially that which is about another brother or
sister. Our communication should be such
that it to be such that is edifying and uplifting the body. Our conversation should be such that it
emphasizes the building up of another believer, not the tearing down. The Bible says we should grieve not the Holy
Spirit and that is exactly what we are doing when we speak against another
brother. We do not have that right and we
cannot reserve that right because that alone belongs to Christ.
When Peter denied Christ the third time, the Scriptures says
that Jesus turned from the midst of his torment and trial and that He looked
upon Peter. This moment, this look broke
the heart of Peter because of his sin.
What would you do, how would you feel if the precise moment of your last
sin if you could see Jesus turn from His pain and look upon you? What if in the midst of your whining and
complaining if you could see the hurt in the Savior’s eyes.
The bottom line is this, God can do so because He is
God. Our bottom line is to do our best
to not add to the whining that He has to put up with. I am reminded of a prayer that I once read
which said, “Deliver me from the natural Darkness of my own mind, from the
corruption of my heart, from the temptations to which I am exposed, from the
daily snares that attend me.” 1
I add to this, Lord
help me to be more like your Son not just another child who adds to the noise. I ask that my conversations be such that up
lift an edify you and make me more aware of every word that comes out of my
mouth.
1.
Valley of Vision, God Honoured pg 25
