Where will grumbling take us?

The day did not start well.

 

As our family was getting on the car, my husband started grumbling that the car was in a mess because the umbrellas were not kept properly. He started putting the blame on me and blamed me for the mess, blamed me for not keeping the car tidy when I drive. But in fact, he was the driver for the past 1-2 weeks because he was in town. Moreoever, whenever I drive, I send the car for wash once a week. He doesn't.

 

As I get on the car, my son was grumbling. I insisted he put a jacket into his school bag because he was having extra-curricular science (make-up) lesson after school today. The air-conditioned classroom could be cold as he had come out of the class with frozen hands previously. He was upset because he had packed his bag and unloaded unnecessary things out from the bag the previous night. He had felt good that his school bag was feeling light today, but putting in the jacket would make the bag bulky again. Hence, he was grumbling non-stop for a while.

 

Yupz, both father and son, were grumbling against me early in the morning before it turned 7am. It really upset me. I took the jacket away from my son, said a few words to let them know they were getting too much their verbal and unjustified rumblings.

 

Both had since apologised to me. But I still feel the hurts and I can hardly put on a smile on my face. Their grumblings, especially from my son, made me felt my love and concern for him were very unappreciated.

 

It dawned on me that this is the way our Heavenly Father felt too, whenever we grumble. When we grumble about anything (it can be a person, the weather, our job, etc.), it reveals that we do not fully appreciate God.

 

The study of the Book of Exodus and Numbers in the Bible Study Fellowship this year has one important lesson I learnt - God hates grumbling.

 

1. We sin the moment we verbalise our unhappiness, without regard for the feelings of others and God.

 

2. When we grumble, we lack faith in God.

 

3. We incur God's anger and judgment on us. God responded to the grumblings of the Israelites with fire (Numbers 11), leprosy on Miriam (Numbers 12), earthquake (Numbers 16), plagues (Number 16:42-50; 21:4-9),  and finally judgment that the first generation of Israelites, except Joshua and Caleb, would be wiped out and they would not enter the Promised Land (Number 14).

 

Does it mean we cannot complain?  No.

 

The name of our God is "slow to anger, abounding in love and compassion,... He will not leave the guilty unpunished".

 

God takes our complaints very, very well when we go to Him ONLY and pour out our unhappiness and hurts to Him alone.

 

When we bring our unhappiness and complaints to Him in prayer (not to anybody) and complain silently to Him, we are showing to our Heavenly Father that we trust His goodness that He will work all things good for us (Romans 8:28); we trust His grace to enable us to carry the easy yoke (Matthew 11:28-29) and His justice to vindicate us (Romans 12:19).

 

Something that happened just these two weeks to me, has proven that God hears our complains when we do it silently and only to Him. There was some decision made that I would have preferred otherwise. Instead of complaining or showing my happiness, I kept silent (absolutely silent). I did not show a tinge of my unhappiness in any outward expression. I only brought my concern silently to God, repeatedly and very frequently.  In the end, things gradually worked out the way I had asked of God. Yes, I am very thankful. He taught me yet another valuable lesson about trusting Him.

 

Our God is completely dependable and trustworthy. When we choose to trust Him in our way of life, He will prove His faithfulness.

Arrogance and Grace

Bible Reading: 2 Kings 5:1-14

A. CREDENTIALS OF NAAMAN:

1. Commander of the army of the King of Aram;

2. A great man in the sight of his master;

3. Valiant soldier;

4. Highly regarded in view of his war victories.

B. CHARACTER OF NAAMAN:

1. A man of pride - Naaman was a man with power and authority over a strong army. He commanded thousands and was a capable leader. He enjoyed high standing among people and was regarded as a man of high position.

This resulted in him having an inflated view of himself when he came before God and the man of God. As he came to Elisha's house, he brought with him his horses and chariots to show that he was a man of great power and authority.

But God doesn't need our credentials, qualifications when He wants to do His work in us. All God wants is our heart to seek Him. Naaman had the heart to seek God's healing and restoration, but he did it his way by bringing with him what he had.

2. A man of arrogance - Naaman said, "... I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy."(v. 11)

Naaman expected Elisha to come out of his house and greet him, and he expected Elisha to preform the miracle there and then, the way he expected.

Naaman came to seek God's healing, but he came with his preconceived ideas and methods how God was supposed to heal him.

God is a God of all wisdom and He is sovereign. He is a wonder-working God who is not confined by human ways and methods. His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8). It will be foolish of us to think God only has one or a few ways of working His miracles.

Hence, we must be ready to put off all preconceived ideas of God and be open to any thing He wants to command us to do. And as we lay our requests humbly before the All-wise and Sovereign God each time, we should not tell him how He should work.

3. A man of impulse - "Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed? So he turned and went off in a rage."(v.12)

Apparently, Naaman was not prepared to listen and do what Elisha told him. Naaman could not understand why it must be River Jordan and not any other rivers that he was geographically near to. Going the extra mile and having to dip himself into the River Jordan seven times must have been a real humbling experience for a man of such high standing. Finally, unable to comprehend God's ways, he stormed off in a rage.

Don't we behave like Naaman at times? We are unable to understand certain instructions given to us by God's servant, and in a moment of impulse and anger, we storm out and leave the ministry or church?

 

C. COMPLIANCE OF NAAMAN:

Naaman experienced complete restoration only after he did exactly what the man of God told him to do:

1. dip himself,

2. in the Jordan River,

3. seven times.

Most people are willing to seek and listen to advice but not many actually adopt the advice and do something to change. Do we hear and hear, week after week through the same sermons about what can change our lives for the better in Christ, but never really following it with a heart of obedience?  This is probably the main reason why many Christians have been unable to experience God's complete promise(s), personal growth and restoration.

Secondly, Naaman's servants played a very important role in encouraging his obedience to the man of God. Are we also encouraging our fellow brothers and sisters to obey God's servants even when the instructions seem ridiculous and difficult? Or do we flow along with the crowd and agree with their short-sightedness.  We must be careful how we encourage one another in the Lord. Our encouragements must bring someone into obedience to the Lord in order for it to be pleasing. Otherwise, the Bible warns that we are like tying stones around the fellow brethren's neck and causing him to drown in the water to die in peril.

D. COMPLETENESS OF NAAMAN

"...Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel..."(v.15b)

Finally, as we read the story of Naaman... one might unintentionally pass judgement on Naaman - that he does not deserve God's complete healing in view of his arrogance and pride - but you know, this is Grace. This is God.

Grace is unmerited favour. It is receiving God's eternal goodness we don't deserve and we did nothing to earn it.

God gave Naaman more than physical healing. He also healed Naaman of his pride and arrogance to recognise his own spiritual need - the need to know the True God. When God gives, his gift of healing makes us whole and complete, to see our own lack and to discover His love. He gives us more than what we actually deserve.

Today, we receive God's Gift of Eternal Salvation purely by Grace. We have fallen short of His glory and our righteous acts are like filthy rags. No amount of our good works, credentials, qualifications can make us look any good to deserve heaven. It is solely by God's loving grace, He sent Jesus Christ to pay with His one and only life, for our eternal salvation, to redeem us once and for all, so that ultimately, God may once again dwell among us.

When we realize how much God has done for us while we were still undeserving sinners, do we have any right to pass judgement on Naaman, or any person (for that matter) for who they are or how they are behaving?  Does their arrogance towards God now become an excuse for us not to share Christ's love and grace to them?

"What does God require of us? 

To act justly, show mercy and walk humbly before our God."

(Micah 3:8)

I Will Be Their God

Bible Passage: Ezekiel 37:15-28

"...for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 37:23b)


When God says something, He means it and will fulfil it. God says in this verse that HE will be the people's God. I wonder how you feel when you read these words. For me, it excited me tremendously to know that the God of the Universe is willing to come down to me, to where I am, and be a personal God to me.

What do I deserve that He should desire to be my God? What have I done to deserve His love and favour? Nothing. Just a sinful person, who have made many mistakes in the past and never will be perfect enough before His Holy eyes.

Yet, He is willing to save us from all our sinful backsliding, cleanse me from my sin and be MY God. In fact, God has already fulfilled His Word in this verse, both to the Israelites and to us, Gentiles.

Through His begotten Son, Jesus Christ, He has fulfilled His promise of salvation from sin and death on the Cross at Calvary.

But what is next for us then, after receiving Christ as our personal Saviour into our lives?

Apostle John in Revelation 21:1-3 tells us,

" Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”^[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. "

God is preparing a new heaven and a new earth - the Holy City. This is going to be the place where God will dwell with His people eternally. You see, God is ever so eager to dwell with us. He was in the time of Moses, now through the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and in the age to come. He is the same God yesterday, today and forevermore!

 

The Holy City is where the Holy God is, i.e. a place where sin cannot exist. Hence, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral and those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and liars cannot dwell with God. The warning is stated in Revelation 21:8,

" But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” "

Only "Those who are victorious will inherit all this [the Holy City], and I will be their God and they will be my children."

What a privilege and honor to have the Sovereign God dwell among us, where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forever, where we will be filled and satisfied. Thank you, Abba Father.

Reflections:

Do you desire to be filled by God's presence today?

You can pray and ask God to fill you with more of His love and presence today.

A Preamble

This blog is started today as I wanted to pen down my spiritual journey with God, and what I am learning about our loving Heavenly Father each day.

This year has been quite a busy year as I am taking more time to study the Holy Bible with the Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) on the Book of Exodus,  prepare God's Word for Children's Ministry and Sunday School.

Since taking up these areas of opportunities to study the Bible, I have learnt two vital lessons.

1. Similar, if not more, amount of time should be spent (or invested) in intimate, personal prayer time with God. This will enhance and deeper our knowledge of God through His Word. This will prevent us from storing up head knowledge about God. Through prayers, the Word is translated to our hearts and our spiritual eyes will see deeper lessons to learn, beyond the lines we read from the pages about God.

2. God loves to dwell with us (read Revelation 21:3). Even before our response to love Him and know Him more is acted upon, God honors that heart to know Him more. He will encourage you as you begin this journey to walk intimately with Him.

As I share my spiritual journey here, I pray that it will encourage you (and excite you!) to take the step to deepen your knowledge of God through His Word and in prayers.