alexandria

Grumbling against a leader can really be a symptom of grumbling against the Lord, when that leader is a leader chosen by God to do his will, so when grumbling against a leader who is trying to do what the Lord has commanded him to do, you are really grumbling against God, as God is the true leader and the person he chose is just the messenger. There can be cases where this might not be true, such as when a leader claims to be God or to take the credit for something that rightfully belongs to God. Some leaders are not sent by God and if this is the case then grumbling would not in any way be considered grumbling against the Lord. Leaders tend to take complaints personally, because the complaints are aimed at them and most leaders tend to forget when they are constantly being blamed for things that may go wrong, that it is really the Lord who they are complaining about. Because of this they tend to take things personally and become angry or resentful. It takes having and accepting the Lord as you leader and trusting him to handle everything. If the leader of a group of people has an intimate relationship with the Lord then he just knows and trusts that God will fix everything, through him. This is when he, the leader finally realizes it is definitely not about him but it is about the lord.

The reasons that people grumble and complain are that they are dissatisfied with things as they are or they just need something to complain about. They also complain because they expect someone else to do things for them instead of trying to help themselves. People are just never satisfied with what they have and always seem to want to blame others for their problems. Fear and faith relate to grumbling in such as they grumble and complain because they are afraid of what might or might not happen and when they grumble or complain this shows lack of faith, that whatever it is they are grumbling about happening etc. cannot be stopped and they do not have the power to prevent whatever it is that they think is going to happen. The symptoms of grumbling that I see in my own life, are those of having a very painful disorder that is impossible to treat and the unbearable pain causes you to complain instead of just giving it to God. The normal things that most people complain about and tend to feel sorry for themselves because of these things. The most sensible thing to do is to give it over to God and trust him to handle it for us but we tend to get caught up in whatever it is that causes us to complain and forget to trust God with our problems.

It is difficult for some church leaders to confront people because they feel that confrontation sometimes causes more harm than good. Most people do not see themselves as sinners and for someone else to point it out to them is not acceptable. Sometimes the church leaders do not figure God into things and they do not have the strength, without God to know exactly how to handle the situation. As Moses and Aaron did, most church leaders do not follow God with humility and faith, so they do not know how to approach people who have sinned openly. The fears that the leader faces are pretty much the same as those of Moses and Aaron, lack of faith, doubt in their ability and most of all trust that God will give them the right words and subtlety to handle such volatile situations. Confrontation and rebuke can be a good thing if it is handled appropriately and makes the sinner see that he or she has been sinning and should change and live for the Lord. When we refuse to confront when we should, the sinner sometimes or most times gets so caught up in the sin, that they start to see it as an okay and acceptable way of life and they move further and further away from God.

Moses blamed God for his troubles because God told Moses he would work through him to make the egyptians release the people but God hardened Pharrohs heart and he refused to release the people. Moses blamed God because he thought that God had not kept his word. Moses and Aaron are stubborn because they do not believe in themselves and they blame God for all their troubles. They expect God to do everything now and do not understand why God is not doing what he said, right now. I think they were afraid but also they did not believe that God would be able to free the people as they both knew the cruelty of the egyptians. God has to command Moses and Aaron, because as most people are, they do not have faith in themselves or Gods promises. God wanted first to have Moses and Aaron believe without doubt that they could do anything as long as they trusted God instead of doubting him, before he freed the people. He needed Moses and Aaron to be strong in the Lord before they could lead their people.

The reason we are afraid to obey God when he puts on our heart to do something decisive is, because we do not feel we are good enough and are afraid of failing just as Moses was. We are to pray and ask God for help to deal with the fear that we feel when asked to do something we feel we cannot do. The relationship of fear to courage would simply be that of trusting God to supply the courage we need and all of the tools we need to do whatever he asks of us, in this way fear and courage cannot exist one without the other.