S05E009, Mustn’t Grumble, Endurance

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On this episode, we look at the idea of grumbling, and why we really mustn’t.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

#GoDeeper

Steven begins this week’s GoDeeper by explaining that grumbling through a workout or through life is hard work. He makes the distinction between grumbling and being honest about life.

Steven gives us an example of grumbling from the bible and identifies the cause of grumbling as discontentment. He explains how to be content and concludes quite simply that we need to be content.

You can read the GoDeeper transcript here.

#GoDo

For the final segment, Nathan asks Steven some questions about his talk:

1. I gather from your talk that grumbling never helps anyone; it always makes life harder for everyone concerned. Is that correct?
2. Contentment – not always easy to achieve. But, as you say, it is ‘super important’. If we are not content, is that especially serious?
3. Do you think you grumble much?
4. If you were given a cucumber, would you be content?

Check out this week’s episode to find out how Steven answers these questions.

Steven and Nathan

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Transcript

Nathan 0:23
Hello, and welcome to Endurance, your weekly spiritual workout. This week we're looking at the idea of grumbling. And whether or not that is a good thing. So, we have some scriptures, which show some examples of when people grumbled against God and against each other, and how that ended up for them.

Nathan 0:43
Steven's going to explain this shortly. And hopefully, we'll be able to understand better the idea of grumbling, and why we should not grumble really. Because there are so many examples in Scripture, and so many commandments from God about not grumbling, about being content with what we have, about being grateful. As ever, if you wish to keep up to date with all that we produce, you can sign up to our newsletter at www.BerryBunch.family in order that you can stay up to date with everything that we're doing. Enjoy.

Steven 1:29
Those tough patches in life will either make or break you. So if you're still standing, smile, you got this. #SpeakTruth #makeorbreak.

#GoDeeper Transcript

Steven 1:43
So, here we are for GoDeeper with me, Steven, and GoDeeper is where we just take the subject of Endurance and we go deeper into it, using scriptures and whatnot. So let's begin. If you were to grumble through a workout, you would find it much harder. For example, if you went for a run, and you just muttered to yourself, the whole way through, Ah, this is so hard, I'm going to die. Or something like that, then it'll be harder than if you have a more, I hate to say it, a positive mindset.

Steven 2:10
And the same goes through life. If you're grumbling your way through life, it's going to be harder. So we as Brits are terrible for that. We're always grumbling about the weather. If it's sunny weather, we're complaining about how hot it is. If it's raining, we're complaining about that. The weather is an obvious one here in Britain, or we always just whinging about.

Steven 2:29
And that's not such a good thing. But there is a fine line between being honest and talking about the miseries of life, which we hear on Endurance have encouraged before. So pouring out your heart to God about how you're struggling, is obviously very helpful. But there's a fine line between that and grumbling. So, yeah, David was pouring out his heart throughout the Psalms, he wasn't grumbling per say, he wasn't whinging. He was pouring out his heart.

Steven 2:56
And that's, we're allowed to pour our heart, but grumbling is not such a good thing, as we see in this scripture here. So 1 Corinthians 10,10 says this, And don't grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. So that's referring back to the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert and they were complaining, which is in Numbers 11, 4 to 6.

Steven 3:21
So, Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food, the Israelites cried again and said, Who will feed us meat. Remember the free fish we ate in Egypt along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic. But now our appetite is gone. And there's nothing to look at but this manner. So they were, they had just escaped from Egypt. They were slaves. And now they were free. They were in the desert, God had provided them with manna from heaven, which is pretty amazing. And they're complaining about the food that they had in Egypt.

Steven 3:55
And this complaining, this grumbling, points to a lack of gratefulness, a lack of contentment, which we are constantly told throughout the New Testament that we need to be content, we need to be grateful. We hear a lot throughout the world that we need to be more grateful for what we have, because there are people are much worse off than where we are at. And there always is really.

Steven 4:15
Yeah, we need to be grateful, we need to be content. It's said a lot. Hebrews 13, 5 along with loads of other scriptures says, Keep your life free from the love of money, be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. It's interesting to note that it's saying first of all, to be free from the love of money.

Steven 4:15
That can be the biggest thing that can stop us from being content when we love money. Money is just a tool to help us live, help us purchase what we need. Years gone by they just traded what they needed for something else. So don't love money and be satisfied with what you have, even if what you have isn't enough, be satisfied with what you do have. Because we've all got something, a few items of clothing, food, whatever. As we go through this energy crisis, be content with what you do have whether it be family, friends or whatnot, be content and don't grumble.

Jo 5:27
So, let's pray. Andy's gonna come on and show us how to pray. Excellent. What, what have you got there?

Andy 5:33
It's my world's Atlas.

Jo 5:35
Okay.

Andy 5:36
So I can pray for the world.

Jo 5:37
Okay.

Andy 5:37
You see prayer's good.

Jo 5:38
Right. Okay, you're gonna show us how to do that then.

Andy 5:40
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I've gone, I've got my atlas. And if you go to the letter A, I'm going to start here. So,

Jo 5:47
Yeah?

Andy 5:47
Please, God, please bless Abenra, and Archen and Arborg.

Jo 5:53
What did you like about the story?

Dave the Dog 5:55
Bob.

Jo 5:56
Bob, you like Bob?

Dave the Dog 5:58
And the stick. Me like sticks.

Jo 6:00
You like the stick?

Dave the Dog 6:02
Me likes sticks a lot I do.

Jo 6:02
Okay, well, we'll try and make sure there's some more stories with sticks in Dave, especially for you.

Nathan 6:11
So that was, that was a very interesting talk, Steven. I think it was very challenging for all of us really, on the subject of grumbling, because we all fall foul of grumbling and discontent, don't we?

Steven 6:23
Thank you.

Nathan 6:24
Ok, so are you ready for these questions? I know I ask that every week. And I,

Steven 6:26
Yeah, and every week,

Nathan 6:29
expect you'll give the

Nathan 6:30
same answer.

Nathan 6:31
same answer.

Steven 6:31
Yeah, no, I'm not really.

Nathan 6:32
Okay. Okay, so the first one. So I gather from your talk, that grumbling never helps anyone? It always makes life harder for everyone concerned. Is that Correct?

Steven 6:44
Yeah, I think so. It's, I'd say it would make life harder when you grumble. It's never helpful to other people. And I think it's safe to say that it's not helpful for yourself either.

Nathan 6:54
No, no, it's a lot easier to face a task if you face it with a positive attitude. When you're grumpy about something, it always seems to take longer. And it's always a lot harder, isn't it?

Steven 7:06
Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan 7:09
So contentment, not always easy to achieve, is it? But as you say, it is super important. If we are not content, though, is that especially serious? I mean, most wouldn't consider it to be a mortal sin. I mean, it's just, you know, one of those things that we go through.

Steven 7:30
Yeah, I suppose it's not the biggest thing in the world. But discontentment is, it's a lack of gratitude to God. It's, if you're discontent is always a miserable feeling, when you're just not satisfied with what you have. Like when you finish a meal, and it's not, and you're still hungry afterwards. That discontentment is pretty miserable. And you don't have to be discontent, you can choose to be content. And it's much easier through life that way, isn't it?

Nathan 7:59
I mean, discontent, it is usually a sign of something deeper, though, isn't it? It's if we're not content, then it usually means that we're not looking for our satisfaction, or our peace in the right place.

Steven 8:18
It's something that we all fall foul of, isn't it? I, I have my moments of discontent, I mean, rare, but you know, I have 'em.

Nathan 8:25
Yeah, I mean, when when we're grumbling to God, it's usually our own fault, isn't it? Because he always gives us what we need to go through life. I mean we may go through difficult patches. But the point is, God never lets us down. So if we're grumbling it's never His fault.

Steven 8:42
No, but it can feel like, it can seem like He's let us down when we haven't got necessarily what we think we need.

Nathan 8:49
Yes,

Steven 8:49
But,

Nathan 8:49
definitely yeah.

Steven 8:52
We have to trust, we trust God, have faith in Him. And know that He is God after all.

Nathan 8:58
It's a difficult one, isn't it? Okay, so question three. Do you think you grumble much?

Steven 9:05
Ah, no, never. Never. No.

Nathan 9:07
I mean, you are British. And as you said, the British are renowned for grumbling about everything. The weather, either too hot or too cold.

Steven 9:14
Yeah, I mean, I was listening to the news this morning on Konnect Radio, and I was like, ah yeah that's rubbish what someone was saying, some political leader they were quoting. I was like, oh, yeah, that's rubbish. And that is kind of grumbling, isn't it? Grumbling about the decision making or speeches of our leaders in this country. So yes, I did it this very day. How about you? Do you grumble much?

Nathan 9:40
I'm asking the questions, alright. And we'll just we'll just focus on that for now.

Steven 9:44
Right.

Nathan 9:44
Okay. So the last question, if you were given cucumber would you be content?

Steven 9:48
Yuck, no.

Nathan 9:58
Well, okay. So there is a difference between being ungrateful and just not liking something.

Steven 10:03
Yeah, see.

Nathan 10:04
I quite like cucumber personally.

Steven 10:06
You're gonna end with that thought? Yuck.

Nathan 10:07
Oh, well.

Steven 10:11
There were other things actually that there was there was garlic and onions that they were ungrateful for not having. I like garlic and onions.

Nathan 10:17
Ah, there you are. Just have to pick and mix a little. Okay, so in conclusion, really, we need to make sure we don't grumble because grumbling only ever makes life harder for ourselves and for others. And we need to learn and as you say, choose to be grateful to God for all that He's given us. We need to choose to be content just as Paul was, in any circumstances, whether he had too little or too much.

Andy 10:58
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Steven 11:11
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Andy 11:41
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