Negativity Spreads

Negativity Spreads

Others had impotent gods who were powerless to intervene. But these people had the only true and mighty God as their God. They had seen displays of His mighty power. When they were slaves in a foreign land He delivered them. When the Red Sea became an obstacle, their God simply cut a path through the waters so they could walk to the other side on dry ground. When they were thirsty, He caused water to flow in the most unlikely places. Their God made them into a nation and was taking them to a new land that would be their own.

But all too often we forget what God is doing for us and we focus on what we perceive He is not doing for us. When we start having those thoughts we can get nasty with God. We accuse Him of abandoning us - sheer neglect! We go for days secretly harboring less-than-worshipful thoughts about our God - if you know what I mean.

When the children of Israel left Egypt, other people (the rabble) joined the bandwagon and tagged along with them. Maybe they were caught up in the excitement or perhaps they were friends - so they decided to go with them. After the exciting drama subsided they became disgruntled with mostly everything. Chronic complainers.

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving.

And the people of Israel also wept again

and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat!

We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing,

the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

But now our strength is dried up,

and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."

Numbers 11:4-6

Their vision was impaired. Rather than seeing what God had done for them and what His great plans were for the future, they looked at the immediate. They totally lost perspective. "Yes, the melons were delicious and the cucumbers may have been scrumptious but what about the brutal lashes you received as a slave? What about the disrespect and the ridicule?"

You know something is drastically wrong in your heart when you start thinking you had it better back in your days of darkness. The little pleasers of the distant past become so exaggerated in our minds that the enormous blessings of today are eclipsed and become invisible to our weeping eyes.

Often the discontent starts with the rabble - those who never did find much enjoyment in Christ. If Christ does not have His rightful place or worse still, no place in a person's heart, the discontentment will surface rather quickly. "This is totally boring! What's here anyway? There's got to be more than this. This is pathetic. They've got it all wrong here. There's nothing good here - nothing to enjoy."

Dear Child of God, what's your status today? Have you been influenced by the negativity others are spreading?  Has the discontentment of the rabble caused your discouragement to become greater and darker?

Maybe it is time to distance yourself from the sources of negativity, even if they happen to be your closest friends. Your usefulness for God is at stake. It is time to seek out new friends who are enjoying Christ and are actively seeking to please and honor Him. Pure negativity will eventually cause you to collapse and crash.

Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today.

Warmly in Christ

Peter Ramsay

peter@heaven4sure.com