Introduction
Are you waiting on God right now, and if you’re honest, has your waiting started turning into grumbling at the people around you? The central lesson I want to press into your heart is this: patiently waiting for the Lord’s return means refusing the spiritual poison of grumbling, because God is forming our trust in Him and our love toward one another while we wait (James 5:7–9). James has been teaching us how to live “the gospel on the ground”, joyful faith in real life trials. Last week we began a week of fasting and prayer by learning patience: like a farmer who plants and then waits for the early and latter rain, we do our part and trust God for what only He can give (James 5:7–8). But now James gives the opposite warning: impatient waiting expresses itself as grumbling, and that grumbling doesn’t just “vent”, it reveals what’s happening in our hearts.
Main Points
Are you waiting on God right now, and if you’re honest, has your waiting started turning into grumbling at the people around you? The central lesson I want to press into your heart is this: patiently waiting for the Lord’s return means refusing the spiritual poison of grumbling, because God is forming our trust in Him and our love toward one another while we wait (James 5:7–9).
James has been teaching us how to live “the gospel on the ground”, joyful faith in real life trials. Last week we began a week of fasting and prayer by learning patience: like a farmer who plants and then waits for the early and latter rain, we do our part and trust God for what only He can give (James 5:7–8). But now James gives the opposite warning: impatient waiting expresses itself as grumbling, and that grumbling doesn’t just “vent”, it reveals what’s happening in our hearts.
Waiting Forms Trust, Not Control
James says, “Be patient…until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7). That command lands in a world where trials are real: diagnoses, bills, job shifts, family tensions, and even the upheaval we see on headlines and news feeds. This letter was written to believers who were scattered, oppressed, and exploited, people whose wages were held back and whose lives were being made harder by powerful men (James 5:1–6 implied context).
So I need you to see this: patience is not pretending things are fine. Patience is refusing to seize control in a way that disobeys God. Like the farmer, we plant and wait. We can’t make the rain come. God owns the “early and latter rain,” and He also owns the timing of your life.
And because Jesus “did not return last week,” we’re still in the same posture: praying, obeying, trusting, and waiting.
Grumbling Is Impatient Waiting
Right after “establish your hearts,” James says: “Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door” (James 5:9).
Grumbling is what happens when my timeline expires. It’s the moment I decide, “God should have fixed this by now,” and then I start looking sideways for someone to blame, someone to carry the emotional weight of my disappointment.
And James is clear: this isn’t a small personality quirk. It’s spiritually dangerous. Not because we can never speak about problems, but because grumbling turns my heart away from faithful endurance and toward accusation and suspicion, especially “against one another.” In other words, trials don’t only test my trust in God; they test how I treat God’s people while I’m under pressure.
Trials Tempt Us To Blame People
Let me be practical: when things go wrong, our flesh wants a target. That can be as small as complaining about referees, coaches, or “if only they hadn’t done that, we would’ve won.” But the same pattern shows up in heavier places: political frustration, church frustrations, leadership decisions, worship irritations, sermon length, lights being too bright, whatever it is.
Here’s what’s happening: the trial becomes a justification for sin. I start to believe, “Because I’m stressed, I’m allowed to speak this way.” James says no. The world will complain naturally. Spirit-filled disciples are called to look different, especially under pressure.
And I want you to hear the warning in love: grumbling can be an early symptom of quitting, quitting on God, quitting on people, quitting on faithful obedience. James puts this in the presence of judgment: “the Judge is standing at the door.” That means Jesus is near, watching, evaluating, not to crush His people, but to call us back to holiness and endurance.
Wilderness Living Requires Daily Dependence
To help this land in real life, Scripture gives us a story that “teaches the Bible with the Bible.” Turn the lens to Exodus 16.
God redeemed Israel from slavery, miracles, plagues, Passover, Red Sea deliverance, enemies swallowed up, and now they’re walking toward the promised land. That’s the pattern: redemption, then journey, then fulfillment. And there’s a key word in between: wilderness.
That wilderness is not proof God abandoned them. It’s proof they are not in the promised land yet.
And it’s the same with us. God redeems us from slavery, not Egypt, but sin, addiction, and death, and He leads us toward promises and prepared works (Ephesians 2:10 implied). But between salvation and glory is the narrow road Jesus described: “difficult is the way which leads to life” (Matthew 7:14). There is no instant glorification. There is daily provision, daily trust, and daily endurance.
Worship Wears Off Without Remembrance
Exodus 16 follows Exodus 15, the Song of Moses, a nation erupting in worship after deliverance. But how long until grumbling starts?
About six weeks.
That detail matters because it exposes something in me: spiritual highs have a shelf life if I don’t keep walking with God in ongoing trust. God’s provisions in this life are often “temporary provisions” pointing toward His final provision when He returns. Until then, it’s day by day by day.
If I don’t expect that rhythm, I will interpret normal wilderness dependence as God failing me.
Grumbling Distorts Past And Future
Exodus 16:2–3 says the whole congregation “grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” And their complaints swing to two extremes:
- They glorify the past. They say slavery was better: “when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full” (Exodus 16:3). Grumbling romanticizes what God delivered us from. It edits out the bondage and remembers only the comforts.
We do this too. We say, “I just want to go back to how it was,” as if the “before” years were perfect. But they weren’t. There were funerals, divorces, drama, hardship, real trials were already there. Grumbling doesn’t tell the truth; it tells a selective story.
- They terrify the future. They accuse God of leading them out “to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (Exodus 16:3). Grumbling assumes the worst, assigns evil motives to God, and speaks as if His promises are now impossible.
This is why grumbling is not “just venting.” It’s an interpretive lens that says: God is not good, the future is closed, and people are the problem.
Discern Grumbling From Godly Concern
I also want to guard your conscience here: this is not a command to never bring concerns. There is room for exhortation, admonition, and constructive feedback in the church. Love notices problems and wants to build up.
But grumbling is different. Grumbling exaggerates. Grumbling spreads. Grumbling isn’t trying to solve; it’s trying to stew. It doesn’t move toward prayer, conversation, repentance, or action, it moves toward shared cynicism.
So when you feel that impulse rising, ask yourself:
- Am I moving toward a godly solution, or just feeding frustration?
- Am I speaking to someone who can help, or only about someone to feel justified?
- Am I remembering God’s faithfulness, or rewriting the story of my life through fear?
Conclusion
James calls me to a kind of patience that is not passive and not fake: a steady, trusting endurance anchored in the Lord’s near return (James 5:7–9). And the proof of that patience shows up in my relationships, especially when life is hard.
You and I are going to face wilderness seasons until Jesus returns. In those seasons, the temptation will be to blame, romanticize the past, and catastrophize the future. But God is training us to establish our hearts, to trust His timing like a farmer trusts the rains, and to refuse grumbling because the Judge is standing at the door.
So I’m calling you to a discipleship decision: in your waiting, choose prayer over complaint, faith over cynicism, and building up over tearing down. That’s how disciples look different in a grumbling world.
Lord Jesus, we confess that we often grow impatient in the wilderness, and our impatience comes out as grumbling against one another. Forgive us for the ways we have blamed people, distorted the past, and feared the future. Teach us to establish our hearts, to trust Your timing, and to wait with endurance until Your coming.
Holy Spirit, put a guard over our mouths and a watch over our hearts. Replace complaint with prayer, suspicion with love, and frustration with wisdom. Make us a people who stand out in trials, not because life is easy, but because we trust a good Father and we live in light of Your nearness.
We submit our families, our church, and our burdens to You. Help us to wait patiently and to honor one another while we wait. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclusion
James calls me to a kind of patience that is not passive and not fake: a steady, trusting endurance anchored in the Lord’s near return (James 5:7–9). And the proof of that patience shows up in my relationships, especially when life is hard.
You and I are going to face wilderness seasons until Jesus returns. In those seasons, the temptation will be to blame, romanticize the past, and catastrophize the future. But God is training us to establish our hearts, to trust His timing like a farmer trusts the rains, and to refuse grumbling because the Judge is standing at the door.
So I’m calling you to a discipleship decision: in your waiting, choose prayer over complaint, faith over cynicism, and building up over tearing down. That’s how disciples look different in a grumbling world.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, we confess that we often grow impatient in the wilderness, and our impatience comes out as grumbling against one another. Forgive us for the ways we have blamed people, distorted the past, and feared the future. Teach us to establish our hearts, to trust Your timing, and to wait with endurance until Your coming.
Holy Spirit, put a guard over our mouths and a watch over our hearts. Replace complaint with prayer, suspicion with love, and frustration with wisdom. Make us a people who stand out in trials, not because life is easy, but because we trust a good Father and we live in light of Your nearness.
We submit our families, our church, and our burdens to You. Help us to wait patiently and to honor one another while we wait. In Jesus’ name, amen.