The Complaining Heart | Back2Basics pt. 2

Hey friends this week we dive into the topic of how to stop complaining and find contentment in everyday life.

Anchor Verse: Numbers 11

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Transcript

Camille Allison (host): 0:10

Hello, friends. And welcome back into another week's episode of Her Soul. I am your host, Camille, Allison, and. Thank you. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for listening. I really pray and hope that this episode. Blesses your spirit. So I currently am going through a reading plan where you read the Bible in chronological order in a year. I don't know that I'll read the whole Bible in a year, um, because I'm honestly a person who likes to sort of like take my time and soak into the word. I am a little bit behind. But I am in Numbers, chapter 11. And that's where we'll be today. But as I was reading through this. God really convicted my spirit and I stopped and I had to really meditate and soak in what it is. Um, that he wanted me to receive from this word. And so as I was doing that, You know, there was some changes that I needed to make. I needed to implement in my own life. And I just felt sort of motivated to kind of share those things with you all. And so that's where we are our focus versus going to be numbers chapter 11, verse one. But honestly I would recommend reading the whole entire chapter 11 because the whole chapter 11 covers what we're talking about. Um, and it's short enough where if you want to stop right now, pause, read it and come back. You can do that. Or if you want to study it in your own time and then listen to this episode. Completely fine. But. For the purpose of today's episode, our focus versus going to be verse one of chapter 11. And I'm going to go ahead and just read it. Really quickly here. And I am reading from the New International Version. And it says now the people complained about their hardships and hearing of the Lord. And when He heard them, His anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them. And consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. Now when you're first reading this, you might think like, okay, so what's the big deal, you know, they complained. Why would that warrant, um, God, to be angry? You know, why would the fire of the Lord be present before them? And we will get into that. I wanted to give you guys just a little bit of background information. If you've never gone through these beginning chapters of, you know, basically the foundation of the Israelites and. You know what God went through to sort of like get them together. Basically the Israelites were slaves back in Egypt. Okay. And God led them out faithfully and has provided for them. Every step of the way. Right, not only that if you want to go back to Abraham and that initial covenant that he made with Abraham to bless Abraham with many nations, many sons, right. Israelite is or Israel, excuse me, is the chosen people. And so they become slaves in Egypt. And in Exodus, the book of Exodus, you see God rescues them from their slavery. And so here we are right now, He rescues them from their slavery and then He tells them He's going to take them to the promised land. And this is where we are. We are in the middle of this journey. When we are, um, as we get into Numbers, chapter 11. And the people are complaining. Now we don't know what they're complaining about in this particular verse. As the chapter goes on, they complain some more and I'll get into a little bit about that as well. But, my commentary. And for this, I use, um, the David Guzik. It basically says Israel was ordered, organized. They were cleansed. They were separated and they were taught how to give. They were my, they were reminded of God's deliverance, given God's presence. And the tools to advance to the Promised Land. So basically Israel was taken care of. Okay. Anything that they needed was already given to them. God had taken in so much time, sort of like tailoring and grooming everything. Perfectly for them. And they've just begun their journey. And now they are immediately complaining. And I wonder. Not I wonder, I know that this is a lot of us. It definitely is me. You know, I was talking to my mom about this. And I was like, God provides for us in so many ways. He does so many things for us. And for some reason we forget. And I think complaining puts us on a little bit of a high horse. Um, and it makes us forget that God has always provided for us. And so the question becomes. Are we hardwired to complain? Is that ingrained into our human nature? Um, and I can't really answer that. I don't know if that's what it is or if it's just the way that society and culture is set up right now. There seems to be this dissatisfaction this discontentment, man. It's like, we're never able to fully appreciate where we are and what we have. We're always seeking more. And in that, we complain, right. We could be literally in a very, very great position. It's a place that we prayed to be. And yet we'll forget where we came from. And we'll forget that God got us to where we are now. Right. With complaining comes. Um, Just overall Discontentment and today we're just going to talk about what is the cure to a complaining heart and that cure, honestly is gratitude. So we'll get into that. I did want to give you guys just like a brief rundown of the rest of chapter 11, cause I find it to be. Hilariously convicting for myself. Um, Like I said, God had me sit on this and like, I didn't move forward in the study. I think the day I was supposed to do chapter 12 and 13. I had to stop because. This is me, you guys, and I'll share some examples in a little bit, but it makes you think like, what is really worth complaining about. So as chapter 11 progresses this beginning portion of complaints, we don't know what they're complaining about when as the chapter goes on, we see they're complaining because they're tired of eating manna. Y'all. They are over it. They want some meat. They're saying. They go to Moses. They're like, why do we have to keep eating this manna? Is there not anything else? Like when we were in Egypt, they gave us all these fine fruits and goods, variety of food, essentially. And. Now, here we are. We're not eating as well as we used to. And I had to pause at this certain point in the text, because if you remember, they were slaves back in Egypt. Things were not cushy. Things were not great yet here they are sort of like glorifying the food selection that they had. And it's even that as a slap in the face, because it's like, God rescued you from those horrible slave conditions. And you have the nerve to be ungrateful about the food that He's giving you. And you wish you had the food you had. Do you wish you could go back to being a slave because that's, what was the reality of what was happening when you were in Egypt? But anyway, so we move on, they are mumbling and grumbling and God is angry. He's like, are you kidding me? And, you know, Much in the same way. I'm sure he's saying to us, are you kidding me? With half the things that we mumbling and grumbling complain about. I know God, and I'll speak for myself, I know He looks at me sometimes and is like, Camille, are you serious? You're complaining about that. You're not trusting me in this season really? And so, um, This is where we are with the Israelites. They cannot see, or they cannot remember, excuse me, the way that God provided for them before. And so as the chapter progresses, Moses intercedes for them, he goes to God on their behalf. And God ends up providing for them. Um, Quail and let me find the actual verse. Oh, yeah. Okay. So in verse 19, you guys. Um, God says. Well, let me start verse 18. Scripture says, tell the people consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed. If only we had meat to eat, we were better off in Egypt. And now the Lord will give you the meat and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day or two days or five, 10 or 20 days. Well, for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wailed before Him saying, why did we ever leave Egypt? And so God is basically like, I'm going to give you what you asked for until you can't stand it anymore. Okay. And that's a punishment to them for their lack of trust and discontentment which in turn is basically them rejecting God's goodness and faithfulness up until this point. At the juice of it at the root of it, you guys, all we're called to do is to be thankful to show gratitude. And I think that's something that our culture loses sight of it's one thing to just write out, um, something that you're grateful for everyday, but to truly practice gratitude in these moments where we might actually really want to complain. That is a true testament of where we are in this walk. And so, um, God ends up. sending quail, right.. And so I don't know if it was this desperation or this greed, but the people go out and collect this quail. And they collect barrels of it. The Bible says 10 homers, which literally equals out to tons of quail that they collect as if they're not going to ever have it anymore. And the final verses of the chapter starting at verse 33. It says, but while the meat was still between their teeth, And before it could be consumed the anger of the Lord burned against the people. And He struck them with a severe plate. Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah because there, they buried the people who had craved other food. And it's sort of like this lesson about greed and Discontentment. Um, and ungratefulness right. So let's break it down. The best fix the best cure for a complaining heart is gratitude. How do we show true, genuine gratitude. I mentioned, you know, taking time every day to write down a couple of things that you're grateful for. And I'm not going to knock that. I think that that's actually a great thing to do. I do that every day. At the end of the day, I'll sit down and write down in my journal, what it was that I was grateful for for that day. And I think that is a good practice because it gets you in the mindset of thinking about. The good things, right. It's good for your mental health. It's good for your spiritual health. It's good for your emotional health. It really does combat a lot of things. And so I'm not knocking that, but I want you to take it a step further. I don't have like, um, a 1, 2, 3 list for this, but I'm just giving you some suggestions, things that you can start to practice and implement. Um, so that is one that daily reflection, you know, it also takes our focus off of things that could potentially be bad. So not only is it fighting discontentment, it's also fighting unhappiness, it's promoting better mental wellness. And so yes, do that daily reflection. And you can write this down or just sit down to pray and just verbally thank God. Thank you God. For this day. Thank you for waking me up this morning. Thank you for my kids. Thank you for the health of our family. You know, just do it sort of like that. But the real big thing, that's going to take a lot of practice. And I, I told you guys that when I read this, I wasn't like, oh, I need to take notes and put this in an episode. No. When I read this, I was like convicted in my own heart and my own spirit. I felt God was trying to transform me in certain ways. And. One of the things I feel that He was telling me to do was to notice when I started to complain. When I started to feel myself complain that's when I needed to sort of jump in and fix things. And so my next suggestion is that when you start to complain, Practice swapping out. Um, or matching that complaint. With a statement of gratitude. And I've been doing this. It's so crazy to me because I've become very aware of when I start to complain and be dissatisfied. And one example that I'll give you. That's very light. Um, my fiance does not eat. Ground beef, pork, anything like that? Really? He doesn't like to eat chicken a whole lot or Turkey either. And so the majority of what he eats is going to be like, um, seafood. Right? And so I am tired of having a seafood smell in my house. And I literally, I won't cook it. Or if I do cook, it it'll be like outside on the Blackstone because I cannot stand having that smell in the house. And then even after I cook it, I have to go through and like bleached down the counters and the stove to sort of like cancel out that odor. Okay. So here I am we are making, um, this is literally the day after I had this study. and he gets up in the kitchen. And he starts to make oysters fry, some oysters. And I mean, it's early in the day too. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Do we have to do this? This is the thoughts that's going on in my head. Do you have to do this today? Do you have to eat oysters today? Could we just go with something else that's not going to cause the smell to go throughout the house. But I caught myself. And I was like, well, Camille, he's getting up and he's cooking for himself. Number one. Thank you God. Because if you know anything about the way our house is set up, I usually do all the cooking, but here he is getting up and doing his own cooking. And I get to take a break with that. Number two. Thank God that we have food to eat. And number three, not only that. Thank God that there is food that he's actually able to eat and enjoy. Right. And that's what I did. And immediately, I didn't care anymore that there was going to be a smell. I didn't care anymore about that because at the end of the day, I know that we can get that out, but is it worth the strife that it will cause in our relationship or in this house? Because I'm constantly getting upset over the smell of his food? It's not. And I had to realize that. On a heavier note I think about, um, we just had a baby girl she's six weeks on Sunday. Coming up at the end of the month, um, or not at the end of month, what I'm talking about, she's about to be six weeks, basically. And, um, all of my kids, Kingston, Kevin, and now with baby girl. They spent like a week's time in the NICU and every time it's the same thing. Oh, why do we have to be in the NICU please? Can we just hurry up and get out of here? And like, there's a lot of complaining. Why is this happening to us? Can we please just hurry up and get out? Like, why are they taking so long to do this? Why are they running so many tests? Why, you know, all of these complaints, I'm tired of being here. I don't want to spend the night in the hospital again. We need to get her outta here. I'm telling yall the whole time. It's a very stressful week. And when you have a sick child, it's very hard to see beyond that sick child. And so that's sort of like the mindset that we were in. And. I remember right after this study. God was like, Reminding me. I brought you through this already. Well, like all of my kids have the same thing. I don't want to go into details about it and I might have already in previous episodes, but they all have the same thing when they're born. It takes like anywhere from four to seven days to get them kind of like fixed up in a sense. And so here it is. God is reminding me, I already brought you through this before. Like, why are you. So discontent, why are you not remembering? We know how this goes. Just trust me. Trust me. It's okay. And so I was like, you're right. I complained. I forgot about His provision from before. Just like the Israelites forgot about how God provided for them as they were leaving out of Egypt. I was forgetting how God provided for us as we were going through these stressful times. Um, with bringing in this new life, into the world. And it's the same thing. How can we replace it in that time that we were in NICU? I should have been saying God, thank you so much that you surrounded us with this team of doctors who have our child's best interests at heart. Thank you so much that they are looking so closely at her and dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's to make sure that we bring home a healthy baby girl, but I couldn't see beyond that. And so that's what I'm saying. I'm not, I'm not in any way trying to say that I am set apart from the Israelites, as far as complaining. I am not. Okay. Many of us are not. We complain a lot. And it's not something we should beat ourselves up about, but it is something that we need to get ahold of. And fix. Why would we knowingly want to make God angry. Because we're not satisfied with the way. That He has provided for us. It's not a good way. So that is the biggest thing. I've just been basically trying to capture these moments where I want to complain. Oh my God, the kids have made a mess. I just finished cleaning up. They made a huge mess. Oh, God, thank you so much that my kids are alive and well and full of joy. And have the spirit of imagination and play that they're able to, you know, enjoy. Thank you God, for that, instead of seeing the glass as half empty yall, I'm challenging you to see the glass is half full. And that was my third thing, I guess, was to choose the half full approach. Even if you have to fake it till you make it. Just for a little while until it becomes a normal thing. Just see that glass is half full. In these moments where I'm frustrated with my kids, because. You know, they're not listening or whatever the case may be. I'm not going to complain about it instead I'm going to choose to see my situation a little differently and not only just to show a grateful heart. Not only does it combat the dissatisfaction. It's going to improve happiness for me. It's going to reduce my stress and anxiety because at the end of the day, Really. There is nothing to complain about. There's nothing to worry about because I know. That God has my back. So, where are you guys with this? How do you all feel as far as, um, like, do you resonate with this? Do you feel like you also have a complaining heart? This is like literally an open conversation. Because I was recently convicted of this. Um, I realized a lot of my nagging ways. And I don't want to make God angry. And I, I say don't, I don't want to make God angry, but I also want to hone in on the fact that you guys, God loves us. We can complain and complain and complain and He will still love us. That's not the issue. But once we know better, we have to do better. And so I don't want to sit here and have the spirit of ungratefulness. Or I'm not being satisfied with what God has already given me. Because just as He's given it to us, He can take it away. Or give us more, you know, with the Israelites he gave them what they asked for and it wasn't, it didn't turn out to be the better thing for him, for them. And so it's like, we need to figure out. How we get ourselves to a place of just trusting God's plan. And so I go back to the basics and here it starts with having faith. It starts with expressing gratitude. So that's all all I got. You guys sit with that, let that marinate until next week, because I think it's a simple message. But it's an important one to our Christian walk. That's it. Yeah. Um, go ahead. And if you do want to be part of this conversation or have more of a conversation, just check me out. I'm CamilleAllison_, I always have been on Instagram as CamilleAllison_. Um, and then you can always reach out to me via email. Every all the contact information is in the show notes. So don't be a stranger to that. And yes, you guys until next week, I'm praying you guys have a blessed, blessed, blessed rest of your week and I'll see you all in the next episode. Bye all. Be blessed.