Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Tanya Wilmoth. I wonder if you've ever complained about something,

only to find out that what you were complaining about wasn't actually true in the first place.

Or I wonder if you've ever been upset with someone about

something you heard, but you didn't have the whole story. Or I wonder if you've

ever gotten a hard heart toward someone and blamed it on them. Instead of looking in the mirror and

realizing it started with you. I think the reality is we do this all the time and

we do it because it's easier to complain. It's easier to get angry and it's easier to blame someone

else for our discontentment and our frustration than it is to deal with what's really

going on in our hearts. Dealing with a muck within that that's hard work, and it makes us uncomfortable.

The Israelites had all the blessings and promises of God in front of them, and they had

their presence of God guiding them in the cloud, and they still complained.

So I don't think we should think we're unique when we fall into the same temptation.

But I do think we should take it seriously, because it's something God chose to include in His

word, not just once, but many times.

And it seems like it's important to address this heart issue, because it can have some pretty devastating

results in our life if we don't.

Let's put our finger on where we are in the wilderness with the Israelite people in Numbers

Chapter 14. They just started their journey from Mount Sinai, and they were only traveling for a few days when they started complaining about their food and their leaders, both of which God had provided for them in his kindness.

And in Chapter 14, they start a new complaint,

a complaint about where they're going,

and it spreads through the camp like a contagious disease.

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