INTRODUCTION

Life’s trials and difficulties are intended to draw people into a deeper knowledge of the Lord. However, murmuring hinders the lessons that result from the trials. The Lord uses trials to draw the unsaved to an understanding of their need to trust Jesus Christ as Saviour. At the same time, the Lord uses trials to teach saved people that they need to fully rely on Him and Him alone. These trials are meant to better the individual afflicted. However, the benefits of trials can be minimized when those enduring the trials begin to murmur and complain about the very thing intended to teach them. Murmuring hinders the education offered by trials. It puts the focus on the apparent wrong of the trial rather than upon what lesson the Lord might hope to come from the trial.

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS

• (For children): God’s people were on a long, hard journey. They forgot how God had delivered them from Egypt (Psalm 106:21-22 [21] They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; [22] Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.
  See All...) and started complaining of having no water. God provided (Exodus 15:22-25 [22] So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. [23] And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. [24] And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? [25] And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
  See All..., 27). Because of their complaining, they faced this same trial twice more (Exodus 17:1-6 [1] And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. [2] Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? [3] And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? [4] And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. [5] And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. [6] Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
  See All...; Numbers 20:2And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.
  See All..., 8).
• (For everyone): What trials have you gone through of late? What lesson or lessons could the Lord have possibly desired to teach you through the trial? Did you fail the test by murmuring?
• Do you enjoy enduring the same trials multiple times? Do you ever wonder why you continue to endure the same trials? Is it possible that murmuring hindered your education and you are having to repeat the lesson multiple times?

PRAYER NEEDS

• Ask the Lord to help you learn His intended lesson in trials.
• Ask God to remind you not to murmur in times of difficulty.

HYMN

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