The rich young ruler in the books of Matthew 19 and Mark 10 told Yahusha HaMashiach that he kept all of the commandments from his youth up, but the Lord quickly reminded him that he was lacking something.

That’s true for all of us. No matter how much we may try to live upright, we will always remain lacking in some area.

You may not be a fornicator, an adulterer, a drunk, a murderer…you may go to church every time the doors open. You may be very generous in your giving …

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BUT DO YOU COMPLAIN?

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Yahuah HATES complaining. He doesn’t hate complainers, but He does hate it when we complain. One of Yasharel greatest, most consistent sins while in the wilderness was that of complaining and murmuring. In fact, it was their complaining that made an 11-day trip last 40 years.

Yahuah hates complaining so much he allowed His own children to suffer death to serve as an example of the level of judgment that complaining deserves…

1 Corinthians 10:10

¹⁰ nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

But, don’t we have a right to complain sometimes? Especially when some things are beyond our control? Why does Yah hate complaining so much?

HERE ARE SOME REASONS WHY YAHUAH HATES COMPLAINING SO MUCH…

COMPLAINING IS THE OPPOSITE OF THANKSGIVING

It doesn’t get more clear than this…

1 Thessalonians 5:18

¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of Yahuah in Yahusha HaMashiach.

Plain and simple…Yahuah expects us to be thankful and content in all things (Philippians 4:11-13). There is not one situation when one is complaining that they could not instead find a reason to give thanks or praise. In all of the Psalms where the psalmist was questioning Yahuah about troubles did the Psalm not end with praise and thanks giving. (Psalm 6, Psalm 13, Psalm 35, Psalm 94 are just a few). There is a difference in a humble lamentation and an arrogant complaint.

COMPLAINING POISONS YOUR ATTITUDE

If we’re honest with ourselves, complaining never makes us feel better. To the contrary if we’re angry it makes us more angry. If we’re frustrated it makes us more frustrated, if we’re discontent it makes us more discontent. Whatever our negative attitude, complaining just makes it more negative. Most of the time we even wear it on our expressions. We look angry and unsatisfied. It takes us from beyond a bad mood to a bad attitude. When we have a bad attitude long enough, it becomes our character…more on that in a moment.

COMPLAINING INFECTS THE ATTITUDES OF OTHERS

How many times have you felt perfectly fine and content about something or someone until someone complained? Complaining is contagious. When we share our negative discontent it can have the same negative affect on someone else’s attitude as well, especially if they are spiritually or emotionally weak.

When we spread discontent, animosity or just a negative attitude we become a stumbling block, and we must always remember that is something that the Yahuah hates too…

Matthew 18:6

⁶ “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

COMPLAINING IMPLIES WE DON’T TRUST YAH

This is huge! Yahuah had led Yasharel and promised them ‘a land flowing with mild and honey’. However, when things got tough, they continually complained and lamented that they wished they had never left Egypt.

Exodus 14:12  

¹² Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.”

Exodus 16:3

³ And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of Yahuah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Complaining in difficult circumstances said to Yahuah then, and still does today, that we don’t trust Him. Remember that through everything that Job went through did he never BLAME Yah of charge Him foolishly (Job 1:22).

Even if our circumstances are beyond our control, we must remember that Yahuah is sovereign to do what He pleases with His creation for however it suits His divine purpose, and we must trust Him in that.

YAHUAH TAKES IT PERSONAL WHEN WE COMPLAIN AGAINST HIS ANOINTED

It’s Yah’s prerogative to choose whom He pleases to lead His people. Even though these leaders are mere men and women, He still expects us to submit to them. Notice Yah’s level of anger when the people murmured against Moses and Aaron…

COMPLAINING SHIFTS RESPONSIBILITY FROM OURSELVES

When I’m honest with myself. Much of what I complain about is the consequences of my own mistakes and actions. Yes, there are things that happen beyond our control. Misfortunes, storms, sicknesses etc. But, many times we will find ourselves complaining about relationships, jobs, purchases, situations and circumstances that either we prayed for or Yahuah gave us to benefit us.

As early as in the garden of Eden, rather than accept his responsibility for choosing to eat the fruit himself, Adam blamed his wife…

Genesis 3:12

¹² Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.

COMPLAINING LEAVES A BAD TESTIMONY

As I mentioned earlier, when we express our dissatisfaction through complaining, and a negative mood and attitude, it can become our character. This is very important…

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Yahuah expects us to set the standard of how to handle difficult circumstances.

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When we react with negativity we have allowed that to become our testimony in that situation. When we allow our complaints to become go beyond moods to attitudes, we can allow that to become or come across as our character, especially in the limited context of other people’s exposure to us, or what they hear about us. Our character or perceived character can become our testimony.

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Once we have mishandled a negative situation, our reputation may never recover. We don’t want that to become our testimony.

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So, what to you do when you have a legitimate ‘complaint’?

Remember this. It’s not necessarily the fact that you disagree that makes it a complaint. It’s the fact that you disagree negatively. That you express your discontent or lament in a spirit of HUMILITY AND POSITIVITY.

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There’s a difference in negative discontent and positive discontent.

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Pray to Yahuah for the wisdom to handle your negative circumstances with grace and in a positive manner, and don’t get caught up in the sometimes overlooked sin of complaining.

AL not AI

We have all sinned and come short of the glory of Yahuah (God), but that does not mean we are not to hold one another accountable. The fact is that the Word of Yahuah demands that we do so…

Ephesians 5:11

¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather ^[a]expose them.

Proverbs 27:17

¹⁷ Iron sharpens iron,
So one man sharpens another.

Galatians 6:1-2

6 Brethren, even if ^[a]anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Yahusha the Messiah.

This responsibility doesn’t stop when it comes to holding leaders accountable as well, both spiritual…

1 Timothy 5:19-20

¹⁹ Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses. ²⁰ Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.

And political…

2 Samuel 12:1-13

12 Then the Yahuah sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. ³ But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

⁵ So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Yahuah lives, the man who has done this ^[a]shall surely die! ⁶ And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Elohim of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸ I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! ⁹ Why have you despised the commandment of the Yahuah, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. ¹⁰ Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹ Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ” ¹³ So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Yahuah.” And Nathan said to David, “Yahuah also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

David repented because the Prophet Nathan held him accountable.

Yahusha repeatedly rebuked the Pharisees for their sins and hypocrisy. Was that judging them?

However, these days, when sin is called out people get defensive and accuse the person or persons holding them accountable of judging.

Calling out sin is not judging. It’s our responsibility. Yahusha the Messiah, told us that we are capable of righteous judgment…

John 7:23-24

²⁴ Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

He also asserted that we can tell what’s in a person’s heart by their fruit…their character…their consistent behavior…and the influence that their character yields…

Matthew 7:15-20

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

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I’m saying all that to say this…I have noticed a common reaction from both ‘conservatives’/’evangelicals’ and those in the LBGTQ movement when…

When someone calls out President Trump’s pride (an equal sin to shedding innocent blood per Provers 6:16-17), daily hurling of insults, speaking profanities at rallies while Christians cheer, boasting about his own accomplishments (Proverbs 27;2), and his admitted unrepentant, unforgiving attitude. He admitted publicly that he does not ask Yahuah for forgiveness, but tries to do better and doesn’t bring our Elohim into it — however when any of this is pointed out many conservatives who claim to be Christians are quick to respond…

YOU HATE THE PRESIDENT AND YOU ARE JUDGING HIM.

This is the exact same response that when the same conservatives who claim to be Christians call out the sin of those who practice homosexuality and support marriage between the same sex, when this sin is called out many in the LBGTQ are quick to respond…

YOU HATE LGBTQ PEOPLE AND YOU ARE JUDGING THEM.

Both groups have the same response, which comes from the same spirit of resistance to the truth — accusations of hate and judgment.

The apostle Paul wrote a very stern letter calling out the sins of the saints in the Corinthian church. He also called out a very public sin in 1 Corinthians Chapter 5, as well as those who condoned it. The church didn’t accuse Paul of ‘judging’ them, but repented and worked hard to rectify the matter…

2 Corinthians 7:8-13 (NIV)

⁸ Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— ⁹ yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as Yahuah intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. ¹⁰  Sorrow towards Yahuah brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. ¹¹ See what this sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. ¹² So even though I wrote to you, it was neither on account of the one who did the wrong nor on account of the injured party, but rather that before Yahuah you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. ¹³ By all this we are encouraged.

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Calling out sin is not casting stones, hate, judgment or condemnation. It is trying to help one another avoid condemnation.

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Yahuah demands that we hate the SIN but not the SINNER, because we are all sinners who are only saved by the grace of our Elohim.

We must pray that leaders, conservatives, liberals, evangelicals, and atheists submit to Yahuah’s word, will, love, truth and salvation.

BE BLESSTIFIED!