It’s so easy to grumble!

‘But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses.” Exodus 17.3

Time and time again, we read of the Israelites wandering in the desert grumbling about their lot and comparing it with some idealised memory of the past, in which they conveniently forgot the harder parts.

If we are honest, we can probably identify with their grumbling as this is something we can be prone to many times a day. Grumbling often begins when we start to look at what we do not have. Rather than dwelling on what we have in abundance, we tend to focus on what we lack, which can easily lead on to apportioning blame for this and judging others.  This is exactly what the Israelites did; they took their eyes off their freedom, their vision of God and his divine provision given to them on a daily basis, and instead recalled a rosy past that conveniently overlooked the slavery, beatings and helplessness of their previous situation.

We may not be slaves or wandering in a desert, but what we do have in common with the Israelites is our propensity to grumble, to take our eyes off what we have and fix them on what we think we lack. Take a moment to pause and thank God for something you do have as you touch each finger of both hands – keep going if you want to, even after your fingers have run out! God always wants us to come to him with our needs, but by beginning to give thanks our awareness of his goodness to us will increase.

www.healingmission.org

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