I was reading Numbers 11 recently as part of working through the excellent Gentle Rain on Tender Grass by Sharon James. In this chapter, the Israelites are grumbling against God about the manna he has provided for them and harking back to their captivity in Egypt (where they had all the cucumbers they could eat, apparently!). As a result of their complaining and ingratitude they were judged severely. This also tied in with a John Piper sermon I just listened to on John 13:31-35. Part way through he talked about how we must lay aside our feelings of "entitlement" in order to love like Christ.All of this has reminded me again how easily it is to slip into an "entitlement syndrome" where I feel things should happen in a certain way, to a certain timetable of my choosing. When things don't go that way, often my first response is to grumble to God, just like the Israelites did.
We are in the middle of planning a very big move from Scotland to the USA, and there is a lot to do. When things don't seem to be working out to plan, or when the headlines are yet again full of financial disasters I'm finding it hard not to default to grumbling. But as Sharon James says,
If our hearts crave after things that the Lord has not yet provided, there is only one thing to do: pray.She then quotes from the Imitation of Christ:
What you should feel and say when you meet something you would like: 'Lord, if this is your will, let it happen like this. Lord, if you see that this will help me and do me good, then grant that I may use it to the honour of your name. But if you know that it will harm me and not advance my soul's salvation, then take the desire away.' You cannot find complete satisfaction in any temporal gift, because you were not created to find your delight in them. Even if you possessed all the good things that God has created, you could not feel happy and glad; all your gladness and happiness rests in the God who created those things.
