Grumbling in Your Tent

Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the Lord. Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them that he would make them fall in the wilderness, and would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands. (Psalm 106:24-27 ESV).

Today I’m going to be moving through the Lenten Season with devotionals that are written in the hope that we may grow in the spirit of encouragement and hope. After all, the end of this season brings us to the greatest declaration of hope the world has ever known. None of these will really “build” on the other, though I hope each will return us to a position of joy and gladness. Our reading today from the psalms is one that brings an uncomfortable sensation. The unpleasant feeling is conviction, as in conviction of sin. It calls on us to be aware of our grumbling. There are so many times we can catch ourselves grumbling. Perhaps you passed up the opportunity to fill your vehicle with gas yesterday and today the price jumped ten cents. Or, you looked online at the local library to download a book you had been looking forward to reading and suddenly it wasn’t available. One of my personal favorites is when I stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things and there aren’t enough checkout lanes open to suit my schedule. There are dozens more examples: in the car, stopped in a construction zone with no one working; in the kitchen I find dirty dishes in the sink with the dishwasher a mere arm’s length away; or, on the driveway and the inside of the windshield smears when I clean it. That’s the way of our discontent in our tent. I read a wonderful some of the reprint of Jeremiah Burroughs’ 1648 classic some years ago. It is titled The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Perhaps one of the best quotes I took away from my reading was when he wrote: “Murmuring is below the spirit of a Christian.” It demeans the greatness of the gift of grace. It should not be a surprise that Jesus had to die on the cross. Our sins include even our grumbling, murmuring, complaining, and discontent. And he died without grumbling about our grumbling! Jesus didn’t grumble; “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” We, then, should “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (cf. Philippians 2:5-15). Lent is a good time to work on our attitude and give up our grumbling. I’ve found the best way to do that is to recount the blessings of God’s gift of eternal life. Today may be awful… but eternity is another day closer!