We live in a time of groaning according to Paul in Romans 8. Paul’s view of the world includes the fact that Christians may undergo hardships and distress. We are not alone, for God is with us, but hardships will still come. The issue then becomes one of how will we face difficulties. Will we conquer them, or will they break us? Romans 8 gives us the confidence that there are resources available in God to help us through the difficulty and bring us into a time of glory. But difficulty presents us with a change and a danger: will our groaning turn into grumbling?
It may seem at first that there is a thin line between groaning and grumbling, both after all both are responses to the problem of suffering in our world. But there is a world of difference between the two. Our groaning is an expression of pain, grief, and stress. Grumbling is also a reaction to pain, but it packs into its response an arrogance, a harshness, and an attitude of rebellion that spoils one’s view of life. In Romans Paul tells us that we groan, but in Philippians 2, he warns us not to grumble.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. (Philippians 2:14–16 ESV)
If we want to know what grumbling can do to people and how displeasing it is to God, we only need to take a look at Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. They forgot God’s past deliverances and failed to trust in their current crisis. They tested the Lord: “Is the Lord among us nor not?” Surely the God who brought the plagues and delivered through the Red Sea could quench their thirst in the wilderness (see Exodus 15-17)! Psalm 106 sums up the grumblers’s experience with these words:
Then they despised the pleasant land,
having no faith in his promise.
They murmured in their tents,
and did not obey the voice of the LORD.
(Psalms 106:24–25 ESV)
Israel in the wilderness wandering is our prime example of grumbling and a clear warning of God’s displeasure about it. Their grumbling lacked faith and obedience. We may groan in the midst of life’s problems while casting our anxieties on God. We may groan and still trust and obey. Faith and obedience are the primary differences between grumbling vs. groaning.
while today 