Do you have kids or grandkids? Do they ever complain or whine? Do they ever say things like “that’s not fair” or “that’s mine” or “Bobby won’t leave me alone?” If you have kids, it’s easy to see that sometimes they whine and complain.
When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, the Israelites were whiners and complainers right from the very beginning. Before they even crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites saw the Egyptians coming toward them and they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?” (Exodus 14:11).
It’s real easy to see when our kids are ungrateful and it’s easy to read about ungrateful people in the Bible. But how good are we at seeing how ungrateful we are? I don’t know about you, but I can whine and complain with the best of them.
We say things like, “why didn’t I get that job” or “why didn’t I get that promotion?” “How come the Jones’ get a new car and I have to drive my old clunker?”
If we are honest with ourselves most of us will admit that we go through times where we are ungrateful about things in our lives. But we shouldn’t be this way. We should be grateful to God for every breath that He gives us. The apostle Paul admonishes us Christians to “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (I Thess. 16-18).
So let’s stop being whiners and complainers and let’s do more thanking and praising of God!