FAITH CAPSULE: Negative confession is rooted in complaining.
 
Numbers 14

The men who had gone to spy the Promised Land came back with a bad report of the land. The report was bad and the entire congregation “…lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.  And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” (Numbers 14:1-3) Is there any way you are responding to God’s promise with a negative confession? Negative confession is rooted in complaining while complaining breeds complication. The Israelites, after having overcome life terminating challenges by the extension of God’s hand, they failed to control the word of their mouth. Bad report caused them to complicate their journey when they confessed negativity. What are your confessions in the face of confronting challenges?
Always think of God’s mercy before engaging your mouth with negative confession? God is a God that hears and sees. It is written, “He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?” (Psalm 94:9) God could not ignore the unfaithful confession of the Israelites when He responded, “Then the LORD said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?” (Numbers 14:11) Indeed and in truth He is a longsuffering and merciful God. The Children of Israel actually asked for what they got from God. They had repeatedly complained and strained with Moses in almost every step since the great miracle of crossing on a dry land in the middle of the Red Sea. Complaining became their identity. Evidently, an act of rebellion is to complain. Encased in rebellion is rejecting God. To reject God is a demonstration of unbelief. Which of these negative acts manifest in your daily life?
Besides the request to go back to Egypt, the Israelites also stated the preference to have died in the land of Egypt. God responded, “…I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. (Numbers14:27-29) They all died except for Caleb and Joshua who did not complain.Complaining will complicate.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from engaging negative confession in the face of challenges.