[Faith-talk] FW: [URCTCPrayerGroup2] What's the problem? by Joyce Meyer

[Eric Calhoun]

Original Message: 
From: Donna Kiser <kiserdonna5 at gmail.com>
To: URCTCPrayerGroup2 at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [URCTCPrayerGroup2] What's the problem? by Joyce Meyer
Date: 
Mon, 2 May 2011 14:56:51 -0400

 What's the Problem? by Joyce Meyer - posted May 02, 2011

*All the Israelites grumbled and deplored their situation, accusing Moses
and Aaron, to whom the whole congregation said, Would that we had died in
Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! Why does the Lord bring us
to
this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be a prey.
Is
it not better for us to return to Egypt?*
-Numbers 14:2-3

"What is your problem?" That's the question I would have liked to ask the
Israelites! Their chief occupation seemed to be to grumble. As the verses
above tell us, they not only lamented and groaned about their situation,
but
they also accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness so they
could
die.

In other scripture passages, we read that they complained about the food.
God provided manna for them, and all they had to do was pick it up fresh
every morning-but they didn't like the heavenly diet.

In short, it wouldn't have mattered what God did for them or what Moses
and
Aaron told them. They were committed to complaining. They had formed the
grumbling habit. And much of it is a habit! If you grumble about one
thing,
it's not long before there is something else to complain about.

When two moaners come together, the situation gets worse. What about the
million or more people who came out of Egypt? Once the disease of
disgruntlement struck, it became like a virus and infected them all. They
were ¬negative about everything. When the slightest problem arose, they
were
ready to return to Egypt. They preferred bondage as slaves rather than
pressing on into the Promised Land.

One time Moses sent twelve spies into the land, and they came back and
reported what wonderful, fertile land they had seen. (Read the story in
Numbers 13 and 14.) The complainers joined with ten of the spies (again,
all
but Joshua and Caleb). "Yes, it's a great place," they agreed. But
grumblers
never stop with positive statements. They added, "But the people who
dwell
there are strong . . . and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers"
(13:28,
33).

Had they forgotten all the miracles God had done for them? Yes, they had.
That's where Satan trips up many people. They whine-and often it's about a
small thing. They find fault with something. If they don't realize what
they're doing by allowing such thinking to continue, they don't need to
ask,
"What is the problem?" What they need to learn to say is, "I don't have a
problem; I am the problem."

That was exactly the situation in Moses' day. The enemy in Canaan wasn't
any
worse, bigger, or more powerful than what the people constantly faced.
But
what if their problems really were more serious? If God could destroy the
Egyptians at the Red Sea, why wouldn't He give them another miracle? They
were His people, and He loved them.

They themselves were the problem, and they never accepted that fact.
Forty
years of wandering, and they never got the message. How dense could they
be?
I've wondered many times. Of course, it's easy to say that-because I
wasn't
there and I can see the situation with hindsight. It's harder to examine
our
own lives and see why we gripe and moan.

"But my situation is different," people often say to me.

That's true, but the spirit in which you operate is the same as those in
ancient Israel. You're so caught up in grumbling, complaining, and seeing
what's wrong that you have no energy or time to appreciate what's good.

"What is good about your life?" I once challenged a woman who complained
about almost everything.

She stared at me and realized I was serious. "Well, I have a good
husband. I
have two children whom I love, and they love me." I smiled and said, "Go
on."

She caught on, and her face lost its down-at-the-mouth look. Although she
didn't say it in those words, she admitted, "I guess I don't have a
problem.
I've been the problem."

Exactly!

Spirit of God, please forgive me for seeing others or my surroundings or
the
situation I'm in as the problem. I've been unhappy because I haven't
faced
that I am my biggest hindrance to deliverance and victory. Forgive me and
set me free, I pray in the name of the Savior. Amen.

[image: 9bd1614a5143f8bd1c944a1f9bdafb13d8ca468f.gif]


-- 
*Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable
in
Your sight, O Lord, my [firm, impenetrable] Rock and my Redeemer. Ps
19:14*