Remembering God's Goodness This Thanksgiving SeasonExemplo

Do you have any complainers in your life? They possess a special calling to share their grievances with the world—whether you want to hear them or not. How do you feel after a few minutes around them? There’s something off-putting about murmuring and complaining.

Or, I’ll ask some different questions: Do you tend to think about the blessings in your life, or the problems you wish were different? Would people describe you as grateful, or are you more of a grumbler and complainer? Is your prayer life full of saying “thank you”, or “give me more”?

Let’s face it: none of us are exempt from ingratitude. Just like Israel cried out for deliverance from Egypt (Ex. 3:9) and then complained when they got what they wanted (14:11–12), we skid down the mountain of gratitude into the valley of groaning as soon as things don’t go the way we like.

We all experience spiritual amnesia. Answered prayers or God’s gracious acts fade from memory. We forget our stubbornness and think much better of ourselves than we should.

Other times, we misremember. As discontented thoughts come to mind—often lies and misperceptions—they shade our view of God. Rather than celebrating God’s provision of manna in the wilderness, Israel grew tired of it. They recollected bondage in Egypt as if they had been staying in an all-inclusive resort (Num. 11:4–6). Sometimes our remembering doesn’t square with reality, and we overstate how splendid life used to be and minimize God’s blessings in the present.

Our spiritual forgetfulness leads to foolishness. We think or speak false things about God. That’s because a grumbling spirit is rooted in something deeper: a wrong view of God. Ingratitude is rooted in idolatry and unbelief.

Grumbling is always a sign of a more severe problem within our hearts. Connecting our grumbling to its source helps us identify what’s really going on. We’re not just “venting”; we’re unhappy with God because of the circumstances He’s allowed. There are deeper issues we need to attack–those of entitlement, pride, discontentment, and forgetfulness. We must apply grace and the gospel to our disgruntled hearts. When we are aware of our sin and grasp God’s mercy and grace to us through Christ, our memories are jolted with gratitude.

God has treated you infinitely better than you deserve. You’re entitled to nothing but death and judgment, but God, in His lavish grace, pours blessings on us. The gospel awakens gratitude and buries grumbling six feet under the ground. We will always tilt toward grumbling or gratitude, and we resist the former by choosing the latter.