Cairo: Jesus in Egypt & God's Unusual Leaning
God seldom gives us all we need to understand, but He always gives us what we need in order to obey. The story of Jesus in Egypt as a boy offers a...
Sometimes the new life God is leading you toward doesn’t seem as great as the one He has redeemed you from. When that happens, complaining often creeps in.
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Remember the complaining of those redeemed from slavery in Egypt?
We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. —Numbers 11:5
We all struggle with complaining. But in those moments, we betray our selective memories.
There’s a better way.
When we grumble about our Christian lives, we only think of half of the truth.
Like the Hebrews, we remember the pleasures of our old lives—the tasty leeks, onions, fish, etc.—but we forget the bondage itself. Our minds focus on everything sensory, and nothing spiritual. It’s never the lack of spiritual connection with God we miss. It is always the pleasure of sin’s immediate satisfaction.
Never mind that we cried out to God to deliver us from bondage. All things being equal, we prefer leeks to manna. What we had seems better than what we have.
When that happens, a number of emotional triggers kick start our complaining:
But gratitude? Uh, no. Our hearts swing the other way.
We remember the pleasures of a life apart from God, but we forget the painful bondage from which we cried to God for deliverance.
We crave the best of two incompatible worlds.
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In those moments when the old life seems better than the new, when complaining replaces gratitude, we need to see the full picture.
We can conquer a complaining attitude by remembering three things:
To insist on instant gratification minimizes and overlooks that which is of infinite worth. It tosses aside the wisdom of God’s sovereignty.
But genuine gratitude can begin to overshadow our complaining. Focusing on the awesome and incredible blessings of God can turn us around and keep us positive.
Tell me what you think: What helps you stay grateful to God? To leave a comment, just click here.
This post is adapted from Wayne’s book, Waiting on God: What to Do When God Does Nothing.
• What do you do when the life God has promised you looks nothing like the life he has given you?
• If you find yourself waiting on God—or if you don’t know what God wants you to do next—this book offers a wise and practical guide to finding hope and peace in life’s difficult pauses.
You will discover what to do when it seems God does nothing.
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