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.
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