Secrets of a Man's
Heart : A Complaining Heart and God's Attitude towards Our Complaint
(Numbers 7-20)
11:15 If this is how you are going to treat me,
put me to death right now--if I have found favor in your eyes--and do not let
me face my own ruin." ~Numbers 11:15
~
One time , as I went out early from the office, I ended up waiting for almost one and a half
hour in order to get a jeep for my ride home.
During the waiting , the time I spent is really not easy. Considering my attitude , I feel
uncomfortable being on a situation where
I am on the midst of people, I don't
know. That idea alone brought my heart
into so much rage. I silently curse myself and complaint to God, that I rather die than to feel like being
stood up by God. Yes, I am a certified
complainer , and it is deeply rooted on the impatience that is deeply engraved
in my heart, that often brings me to a
moment of hysteria before God.
Remembering His faithfulness however, I decided to eat my heart out again . With burger
and fries on the fast-food table, I
decided to read my Bible, which is
always with me and pray. After some while of communing with God, I spotted an almost empty Jeepney , and ride on my way home safe and sound.
Hallelujah! Amen!
Most of the time, our
common attitude towards God is this: Whenever we face difficulties, we say,
"Just kill me Lord, " or,
"What did I do to you, for
me to deserve this. " The attitude of our hearts is to always complain.
But haven't you know that one of the greatest man of faith
is also a certified complainer and that is Moses. Whenever,
the Israelites tend to complain,
He always, let His rage out to
God. His impatience, caused him to move
in the spur of his emotion and hit the stone twice, resulting for God to reprimand him from
entering the promise land of Canaan, but
only allowing him to see it from afar off.
The Hard Truth.
Complaining is equivalent to a heart of rebellion. The Israel's journey in the wilderness
is the story of Israel's complaints
towards the Lord, from the manna they
eat, to the leadership of Moses and
Aaron, they always have a thing to say
against the providence and leadership of the Lord, as a result,
40years they spent in the wilderness ("In the Wilderness" is
the old Hebrew name of the book of
Numbers) until all the first generation Israel (from 20 above) were wasted away
in the desert, except for Caleb son of
Jepunneh, from the tribe of Judah, and Joshua son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim, son of
Joseph, who faithfully stand in favor of the Lord. Even Moses and Aaron were not spared for God
will never tolerate rebellion. In
fact, the whole theme of the book of
Leviticus is "God is holy, so we must all be Holy. " Matthew 5:48
states also "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect."
And as we move forward
on the new testament, we will
notice that it is always a constant battle between flesh
and Spirit, but as Jesus overcame
death, sin, and Satan,
(Hebrews 2:14-18) we will also be an
overcomer like Him, for we are
more than conquerors, through Him. (Romans 8:37)
The Lord's attitude is
different however . . .
2 Things that we
must remember when we are on a Situation that drives us to complain.
1. Share your Burden
11:16 The LORD said
to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as
leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting,
that they may stand there with you.
11:17 I will come
down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and
put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so
that you will not have to carry it alone. ~Numbers 11:16-17
Man 's concept is to always do things alone - all by
ourselves, but doing so doesn't show
that our God is all powerful. The whole
idea of God, however, is to divide the burden,
wherein only a portion is being left to us, for He will not let us to be tested more than
what we can bear.
It is evident when God Himself suffered and died for our
sins, in the form of the man Jesus Christ. He is absolutely without sin, but He became sin for us. (Philippians 2:5-8)
We cannot bear to die while nailing on
the cross, so Jesus did it for us, as the most holy and qualified sacrifice, to redeemed us from our sins and bringing us
back to God.
After His death, the
veil that separates us from the Most Holy Place of God was torn that we may now
freely come to Him (Hebrews 6:19-20) and as the Spirit of Christ is alive in
us, the very same spirit of God
testifies that we are Sons and daughters of God (Roman's 8:14-17)
Being God'children,
God wants to share us this idea of sharing the burden.
A. We need to Come to
God
Jesus said,
"Come to me all of you who are weary and heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy
and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30)
Whenever we feel tired and bothersome, instead of complaining , come to God and simply let go of those things that
burdens us, and surrender to God.
Taking Jesus yoke is exchanging the life that we had had, including everything that is in it, and wearing completely the life of
Christ. Having the yoke of Christ, you'll recognize, that the one that you thought of as a problem is a room for you to grow and an opportunity
to help others around you as well, like
putting even a simple smile to people,
after an streneous tasks was being done.
Thinking the way like Jesus
think, makes our like to
become so much easy, and full of peace.
B. Multiply your life
through Discipleship
If you happened to read the book of Exodus in the Old
Testament, you will perhaps stumble to a
very interesting Story of a Father,
sharing a very good wisdom to the
husband of his daughter. Jethro, the Father-in-Law decided to pay Moses a
visit in order to witness the Lord's faithfulness to His people. Seeing how tiring and too much is the task
for Moses , he advice Him to select leaders that would help him accomplished
all the things that needs to be done. It Is being repeat when Moses raised up his concern to the Lord that he
cannot manage the Israelites alone, and
as a result, the Lord Almighty give some of His Spirit to the seventy elders of Israel
so that they would be an able help for Moses. The same practice is also
applied by Jesus during the course of
His public ministry. The four gospel books (Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John) documents how Jesus trained His 12 disciples and show
them the way to the Kingdom of God. As we move on to the book of Acts, we witness how the eleven
remaining disciples, and the rest of the
120 who received the Spirit of God on
that upper room in Jerusalem strive to
live like Christ live as a living ministers to the rest of The world. Galatians 1 tackles how Paul was being
discipled by Jesus Himself and became the greatest apostle of all times.
Now, why
discipleship? Discipleship simply means
multiplying your life to other people.
The more we develop our relationship with the Lord and apply it to our
lives, we'll notice that sometimes , the
big things that our heart desires can be found on simple little things that we
do for others. You don't just share
the word of God, but becoming the living word ourselves.
I remembered talking to an office mate the importance of
having driver's license while driving as a protection for himself and at the
same time, to prevent him from having an
illegal record in NBI to which he will regret with the rest of his life. I also
explain him the importance of law in every country. The second time he talked again to me, he asked if he can go with me on my home church. I told him that it's far , but he replied
that he has a motorcycle. I asked him if
he already has a license, and he say
"Syempre , meron po ma'am"
That moment I
remember the Ethiopian Eunuch who
told Philip that "here is the
water, who can prevent me to be baptize.
" Then I realized, that the more we
became willing to share the life of Christ, the more we became aware of the
hunger of people around us for the word of God.
Whenever we see such cases that we became more of a blessing
towards others, we understand that
during our wilderness journey, God is
readying every aspects of our lives, and
even our characters until such time that
we are now ready to take possession on our promised land. Thinking that way, complaining will no longer be our
problem, but instead, every moment is an opportunity for us to grow
and learn. As people see us, we are also
teaching and leading them to live the very same life, thus we became a good example to them.
Having your own disciples for Christ is like having a mini
you doing and accomplishing things on your behalf. In this whole idea, tasks and ministry works would be more
productive and efficient. This is of
course an effective tool for every single Christian in order to attain a
duplicate life of Christ. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is like having Jesus
Himself in person, because we do things
on behalf of Him. Remembering that we are here to glorify God the way Jesus
did, our hearts will be filled of love
that there would be no room for complaining anymore.
C. Sharing each
other's burden is always inside the context of the Church.
Acts 2 makes a comprehensive documentation of how the
Pentecost Church live by supporting each other.
Everyone sold their own possessions and surrender them to the apostles
who in return divide it in accordance to
what everyone needs, and nobody lacks
anything. Everyday they gather together
and listen to the teachings of the Lord.
In short, everyday is a
fellowship and bible study day.
2:42 They
devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer.
2:43 Everyone
was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the
apostles.
2:44 All the
believers were together and had everything in common.
2:45 Selling
their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.
2:46 Every day
they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their
homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,
2:47 praising
God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)
When you are inside the body of the Church, we are also part of the very body of
Christ, and partaker of His
Sufferings. If you think that it is a
sad thing though, well Roman's 8 explains it this way:
(Roman's 8)
8:18 I consider
that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed in us.
8:19 The
creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
8:20 For the
creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will
of the one who subjected it, in hope
8:21 that the
creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into
the glorious freedom of the children of God.
8:22 We know
that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right
up to the present time.
8:23 Not only
so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as
we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
8:24 For in this
hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what
he already has?
8:25 But if we
hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
8:26 In the same
way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray
for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express.
8:27 And he who
searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints in accordance with God's will.
Sufferings not only test our patience, but most importantly it builds it, for we
know that even our earthly bodies is destined
for decay, our Spiritual
self has a hope of being joined with God
one day in the form of our glorified bodies which is now finally free from the
presence of sin, so we do not lose
heart, though our outer self is wasting
away Our inner self is being renewed day
by day (2 Corinthians 4:16)
Moreover,
1:3 because
you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
1:4 Perseverance
must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking
anything. (James 1:3-4)
Perseverance or Patience is the key to contentment because
we know that He who promised is faithful
and He will make everything beautiful in its time, so we have
this hope as an anchor for the soul,
firm and secure. No worry no more.
Inside the church,
you will find true family, and
reliable people that will help us in times that we are already worn out. These people uplifts us and helps us to build
our life in such a way that is glorifying to the Lord.
2. Love God and love
people.
Do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14) that as if
everything that you do, you are doing
for the Lord.
Why love? Love covers
a multitude of sin, even sins that
origins from our hearts and a sin of attitude.
If we truly love the Lord, we
obey His commandments and His
commandments is not burdensome. No more
complaint. 1 Corinthians 13 also mentions that love is not arrogant, rude,
and even boastful . It does not rejoice on wrong doing but rejoices with
the truth. True love is always patient. If we truly love the Lord, we always humble ourselves and subject to
His love and corrections.
Sharing our burden with the Lord and with the church, as well as loving the Lord and the
church, will free us from those dull moments of
complaining . In the end, I just want to
say Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)
~
“This is how
we know what true love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought
to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)
Laying our lives means sharing the very life of Christ. It is not
only about preaching the word or quoting the scriptures, but becoming the
living Word ourselves- the word who became flesh (John 1:14) like Jesus did. We
could do that by doing little things into people surrounding our circle or
getting involve for a higher cause. What are you willing to do to love God and
other people?
Join us and make a Compassionate Step for others today!
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