I received an email from one of our partners one day and it came back across my path today – it truly is too good to not share!
At the beginning of the week, I read your motivation about the one drop at a time. It has been on my mind all week. Right after I read it, God began showing me how complaining and grumbling has a similar but inverse effect! I wanted to pass it along. He said that complaining and grumbling chip away at our foundation just a little at a time leaving us vulnerable to storms and other attacks. It weakens our integrity in the truest sense of the word. Then he left me with the phrase, “grumbling leads to crumbling”. That phrase paints such a powerful picture in my mind and is really making me think before speaking more than I have in the past. (JT)
We know from scripture that complaining will stop the promises of God from manifesting in our life. We see that with the children of Israel. They complained and murmured against God and Moses continually. Because of that, they did not enter their promised land – they never received their promise. They died in the wilderness. We do not want that to happen to us, do we?
I love what the Lord shared with my friend, grumbling leads to crumbling.
In other words, it is destructive from the inside out.
Philippians 2:14-16 says, Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
We cannot shine as a light in this world if we choose to grumble and complain.
Complaining, as the Lord said, makes us vulnerable to attacks from the enemy. This truth is confirmed in the following verse.
Nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. (1 Cor. 10:10)
Yikes!
After studying through a few scriptures, I became curious. What effect, if any, does complaining have on our physical body?
I want to share an article I found that answers this question.
Your brain stores information, thoughts, data, and affirmations. Unfortunately, it doesn’t distinguish the good from the bad. As a result, the most repeated actions come more easily, and these are often negative. Being in a constant state of negativity affects the main organ of your nervous system without you even noticing it. It gradually gets used to these kinds of thoughts. Your brain function is composed of multiple synapses (neural connections) that are in charge of carrying information. These activate the moment you have a thought or idea. They’re helped by an electrical pulse. With the passage of time and the collection of information, your synapses get stronger. When we think negative thoughts constantly, our brain will restructure itself. So, you end up making these ideas (negative) very common and easy to access for your next neural reflexes.
At a glance, complaining is like destroying yourself from the inside. In other words, it degrades your body’s health.
Your central nervous system isn’t the only one affected by negative attitudes. Other regions of your body change due to this bad habit.
Areas like your heart and digestive system suffer from the effects of complaining. This increases the likelihood of suffering from diseases like diabetes, obesity, or high blood pressure.
In general, your immune system is also affected if you continually complain. These problems are associated with cortisol. This is the hormone that’s released by the adrenal gland during stressful moments.
When it’s produced in excess, your immune system is disrupted. When this happens, problems start to arise. (steptohealth.com)
Complaining and grumbling affects us physically as well as spiritually. It’s no wonder God’s Word teaches against it. It opens us up to attacks from the enemy and it paves the way to sickness and disease.
Spiritually and physically, a negative attitude destroys from the inside out. None of us want that.
I encourage you today, pay attention to your attitude and your words. Psalms 141:3 says, Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. May the words of our mouth be pleasing to God as we refuse to complain and grumble.
