FAITH CAPSULE: In the place of complaining, compliment God by praising and worshiping Him.
Numbers 14
Complain begets the act of rebellion. Giving to Complaint will complicate the journey of life. The Israelites could not do without complaining right from the moment they were set for the journey to the Promised Land. Complaining was a pattern in their life. When negativity becomes a pattern in any journey of life, man is set to be paralyzed in journey. The truth is that God is true to perform and perfect His word as a result; there should be no reason for complaint but to faithfully wait on God. The Bible recorded in Exodus 15:23-25 “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.” Have you got to Marah in your journey? If you are not yet at your Marah in the course of your journey you will surely get there. Marah is the ground where it is better not to complain during any experience of lack. Your Marah will be a place to pay attention to avoid temptation of complaint.
The children could not hold against complaining when there was no water to drink. The Israelites after their complaints, they did not travel far when, “… they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.” (Exodus 15:27) Their complaint is the evidence of lack of focus on what God has done and what God can do. Complaining breeds discouragement. Do not be discouraged at your Marah because your Elim (your ground of abundance) is not far from where you are. God will make you up for His glory.
Through their journey compliant was consistent until their journey was terminated. Pharaoh and his chariot could not offset the promise of God over their life; The Red Sea could not overcome them; Jericho failed and fell for them to advance in their journey but in their complaint they confessed negative and their journey was terminated. Numbers 14:2-4, “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…” All manner of complaint came out their mouth and God responded in Numbers 14:28, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 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.”
Prayer for today: Ask for deliverance from the spirit of complaint.