Giant, It's Time for You to Come Down!ਨਮੂਨਾ

Day 5: Practice Battle

Sometimes, the best thing we can do to prepare for something is to practice, so today, I want to challenge you to take on a giant that sneaks into everyone’s life at some point — I want you to confront the giant of complaining in your life.

Recognizing the Giant of Complaining

In Numbers 14, we can see the giant of complaining taking over the Israelites. These were God’s chosen people who had received so much from Him, and while they were in the wilderness, He continued to provide for them.

Every day, manna would come out of the sky to feed them. Every day, they received more than they could even eat in a day, and it probably had every vitamin and mineral you could possibly need. What a miracle this manna was, this provision of God, but somehow, the Israelites started complaining about it. They got bored with the free and plentiful manna from God!

You see, complaining was a habit for the people of Israel, so strong that when they got to the promised land, all they could focus on were the giants that lived there. They got so scared that they started talking about going back to Egypt. Think about that; they were such complainers that they thought Egypt, where they were slaves, was better than God’s promised land!

This giant of complaining is so sneaky because it can be habitual, and it will harden our hearts to God and to the people around us who are just trying to love and help us. When we complain, we're not thankful, and we can’t see what God has given us, so we start believing we are right in our complaints. Our eyes become blinded, and all we can see is what we don't have or what's not working out, and then we just complain more until we become totally deceived by our complaining, just like the Israelites.

Fight Back!

This giant is so common in our age, and it has got to come down, and the only way that’s happening is through submission and thankfulness to God. Oh, friend, I've seen Thanksgiving whip the giant of complaining so many times. Just look at the apostle Paul’s example.

When he was writing Philippians, he was in a horrible prison. Historians say it was down under the palace, so all the sewage from up there came down into the room where the prisoners were, where Paul was writing Philippians. Rats were crawling everywhere, and people were dying around him, but the first thing that Paul wrote was “I thank my God.” How can you be thankful in a horrible prison like that? Well, that was the Holy Spirit giving Paul strength for thankfulness, and that is what is going to take down the giant of complaining.

When we say by our own will, “God, everything is not how I want it, but you are faithful, and you love me. I have a job, a home, and food to eat. I have breath in my lungs today, and I thank you, God.” That thankfulness will put down the giant of complaining, and it will open our eyes to the blessings of God, and that is where we will find real happiness.

We are giant killers by God’s power, so let’s take down this giant of complaining today!

Questions to Discuss:

1. Complaining is a giant that can sneak into the little, insignificant corners of our lives, and it will grow if we let it stay there. What is a little area that you’ve complained about this week or this day? What is something you have to be thankful for in that area?
2. Is there a complaint that has become a habit in your life?
3. What are some things that you can be thankful for every day, no matter what complaints come up?