How should Christians understand the spiritual seriousness of complaining?

Complaining is “serious business,” not because problems are trivial, but because complaining can harden the heart against God (Harper, “What Complaining Does”, 2025). The psalmist warns, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation… in the wilderness” (Psalm 95:7–8). Harper connects this warning to Israel’s history at Marah and Meribah, where grumbling became a test of the Lord (Harper, “What Complaining Does”, 2025).

Moses sharpened the point: “your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD” (Exodus 16:8). Complaint is frequently horizontal in expression, but vertical in meaning.

Hebrews applies the same danger to the church: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). Complaint can be a form of unbelief that resists God’s voice, distrusts His care, and then grows stubborn.

Yet Scripture also gives a clear alternative. Instead of hardening, believers soften: they pray, remember, wait, forgive, and forbear. “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another” (Colossians 3:13) is a practical antidote to a murmuring spirit.

Complaining is not merely negative speech; it is often unbelief that hardens the heart and opposes the Lord’s care.

Related Material

• Words’ Profound Nature and Transformative Power — shows how speech shapes belief and can either build faith or corrode it.
• Transforming Busyness: Heartfelt Reflection — parallels how unchecked patterns (like busyness) subtly harden spiritual priorities.
• Material Pursuits and Spiritual Restlessness — connects complaining to discontent that grows when the heart is not settled in God’s care.

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Source: What Complaining Does

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