Sneaky Snakes and Fiery Serpents

 Recently, I was at a ladies event at my church when the Holy Spirit began to deal with me about my current situation.  Here's the back story...This past year I was unemployed for 6 months, and it was a definite faith walk, but I'm happy to say that my prayers were answered and I landed a job that paid better than my last position. Hallelujah!
I've been at my new job for a few months and as with any new job, there is stress. Unfortunately, this past week the stress went to a whole other level and I left work feeling overwhelmed and utterly defeated...in fact, I cried. 
In my car, I cried out to God in frustration that "all I had wanted was a job that I could enjoy and get paid well!"  Forgetting in that moment, that is EXACTLY what I already had!
How did it get to this point? The job that I had been rejoicing over, was now causing me to cry. 
Two words...murmur and complain.
Oh, it started subtly enough and sitting at the Ladies Event I began to wonder "how subtle was the complaint that Eve had in the garden of Eden that the enemy was able to disguise himself as a serpent and sidle up to her and convince her to disobey the only command she had been given?

In Genesis 3:1-3 MSG we see the serpent ask her about what she did NOT have:

The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made. He spoke to the Woman: “Do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?”

^2-3 The Woman said to the serpent, “Not at all. We can eat from the trees in the garden. It’s only about the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘Don’t eat from it; don’t even touch it or you’ll die!

This is how easy it is to fall into murmuring and complaining.  It begins with a mere thought about what you don't have or a perceived slight, and the more you dwell on it, the more it slithers from your mind down into your heart, twisting your perception so that you start to murmur. 

By definition a murmur is a soft indistinct sound and it is also a condition in which the heart produces or is apt to produce a recurring sound indicative of disease or damage.  I found it interesting that a murmur is used to detect a "heart" condition.  OUCH!

The speaker had us turn to Numbers 21:4-9, where we read about the "fiery serpents" that were sent forth among the Israelites while they were in the wilderness because they began to murmur and complain about God and Moses.  Imagine having to pay for complaining with your life!  With the results of their sin slithering between their legs and wreaking havoc, the people repented for their words and cried out to Moses and God.  The Father was faithful and did not leave them in their distress, he instructed Moses to fashion a serpent out of bronze and place it on a pole and all who looked upon it would be healed.  
This definitely puts a new spin on how important our words are and how deadly they can be!
James 3:4-6 MSG further shows us the power of the tongue:

A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!^5-6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.

Thank God, it only took a moment in the presence of my Heavenly Father to make the heart adjustment and to choose to set my eyes on all that He had done for me.  It only took a moment to choose to be grateful for the job I had and to pray for wisdom to handle all that it would entail.  The next day I went to work surrounded by the peace of God and was greeted with this verse on my daily calendar, found in Proverbs 16:3:

"Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.

That's exactly what I will choose to do and when those sneaky snakes start to slither their way between my legs, urging me to voice my complaints, I will choose to focus on the one thing that will heal me...the Word made flesh who dwelt among us and was lifted up on a pole to heal a dying world.  I will look unto JESUS, the author and finisher of my faith and I will rejoice in all He accomplished for me.