What is negative talk?  It is the talk we do that puts down ourselves, others, or a situation; it is our grumbling and complaining about each other or events that take place in our lives.

We have examples of such talk throughout the scriptures.  The example I like the most is in Numbers 13:1-14:45.  There is so much that we can learn from the Israelite people, if we will only listen.  The Lord had promised the people to take them to a land of milk and honey.   He led them through the desert and when they were ready to take their promised land, God had Moses send out a leader from each tribe to explore the land (Numbers 13:1-3).  The men were obedient and explored the land for forty days (13:25).  When they returned Moses asked them to tell about the land (13:26-31)  Most of the men reported about the powerful people and the fortified cities.  They made it sound so difficult that they got to the point that they were exaggerating (making up) stories about the land (13:32-33).

Now let’s look at what has just happened.  The men give a report in verses 26-31.  Most likely an honest report.  The majority decide that it’s not possible to do.  Caleb spoke up and said they should take the land--he believed they could do it.  But in verses 32-33 the men who gave the bad report change their story.  They make it even worse.  They get the people in such a frenzy that they start grumbling and crying (14:1-4).  Why did the men change their story to sound worse than it was?  They were afraid.  Why were they afraid?--as they were talking about it they made themselves more afraid.  The more they talked with the others, the worse it got.  The same thing happened with the people.  They heard the exaggerated reports and reacted strongly to them.  So strongly that they acted as if God had not been caring for them and, thus,  wanted to go back to Egypt. 

Two men of integrity that didn’t get into the negative talking frenzy stood up for the truth and told the people not to be afraid and to trust God (Num. 14:5-9).  But the people had worked themselves up so much by TALKING that they started talking about stoning Caleb and Joshua (14:10).  Now how ridiculous is that.  The only two men, of the leaders sent, speaking reasonably and they want to get rid of them.  See how stupid this looks.  The men were speaking the truth, they were not trying to rouse the emotions of the people and the people rejected them.  Why?--Because the people had talked so negatively that they believed their own lies.  Before we judge these people too harshly we better take a look at ourselves.  How many times do we do the same things with our thoughts or our words?

God’s response to the people’s grumbling is very telling.  God says in Numbers 14:11 “How long will these people treat me with contempt?  How long will they refuse to believe in me in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? “  Wow!  God could say the same thing to us.  Every one of us can tell of some miraculous thing that God has done.  Not trusting in Him is treating God with contempt.  We probably have never looked at it this way before.  God points out how their grumbling and complaining--their negative talk--has led them to treat God with contempt.  This is worth looking at very closely.  There was so much power in their negative talk that they began treating God with contempt.  None of us desire to treat God with contempt, but through our talking (complaining) we can get to the point where we do this. 

In Numbers 14:20-23 God points out that he forgives the people for their actions but that he still will punish them.  God points out how they disobeyed and tested Him 10 times.  Wow!  If we look back we will be able to see those ten times. 

    1.  Exodus 4:29-31--Signs first shown to the Israelites.
         Exodus 5:21--The foremen of Israel complain about Moses to Moses.
         Exodus 6:9--The people of Israel would not listen to what God said to them through Moses.
         Exodus 12:5,27-28--Israelites obey.

    2.  Exodus 14:10-12--People whine in fear of the Egyptians coming after them.
         Exodus 14:21-31--God shows miracles again--parts the sea and the people trust God again.

    3.  Exodus 15:22-24--People grumble about no water after going three days without running into water.
         Exodus 15:25--God provides water.
         Exodus 15:27--Israelites come to a place to camp with an abundance of water.

         NOTE--if they had waited just a little while longer they would have had water.  How often are we the
         same way?

    4.  Exodus 16:2-3--People grumble because they’re hungry.
         Exodus 16:11-19--The Lord provides food.
         Exodus 16:20 and Exodus 20:27--People test God.

    5.  Exodus 17:1-3--People grumble and test the Lord about water once again.
         Exodus 17:5-7--God provides water out of a rock.

    6.  Exodus 32:1-6--People ask Aaron to make them a “god.”  Aaron makes a golden calf.
         Exodus 24:3--People accept God’s commands and say they will obey them.

    7.  Numbers 11:1--The people complain about their hardships.  God responds with fire--you can tell God’s
         patience is wearing thin.

    8.  Numbers 11:4-6--People complain about only having manna to eat.  They want meat again.
         Numbers 11:10--God becomes exceedingly angry and Moses is troubled.
         Numbers 11:18-20--the Lord responds with telling them He’ll give them meat until they’re sick of it.
         Numbers 11:31-34--the Lord’s anger burns and He strikes them with a severe plague.

    9.  Numbers 12:1-2--Miriam and Aaron talk about Moses in a grumbling (gossipy) manner.
         Numbers 12:4-15--God responds.

    10.  Numbers 13:1--People are told the Lord is giving them the land He promised them, their leaders are to explore
            it.  (Even after all of the times of testing and mistrust of God, God is still willing to fulfill His promise.)
           Numbers 13:26-31--the report is given by the explorers.
           Numbers 13:32-14:4--the people complain in fear once again.
           Numbers 14:28--God says He will do the very things they spoke of (feared would happen), as a result of their out
           and out defiance.

As a result of their treating God with contempt they were not allowed to go into the Promised Land, they had to continue to wander the desert until all of the men who had seen God’s miraculous signs in Egypt were dead--all except the two men who stood up for the truth and trusted God. (Num. 14:23-25)

The real telling of the power of our negative talk is seen in Num 14:27-28.  God says that he has heard the complaints and grumbling of the Israelites and He will do to them the very things he has heard them say.  WOW!  The very fears that they conjured up have come true.  Not because they were supposed to come true, but because they chose to not trust God.  In a sense they gave power to the things they said and God granted it.  This is something we can really learn from.  Our negative talk can have great power.  We can complain about something so long that it actually takes place.  Were we right in complaining all along--NO!  If the Israelites hadn’t complained none of their grumbling would have come true.  The same is true for us--if we don’t complain and grumble about a situation we might be amazed at the end result.  The one thing we can be sure of--if we grumble and complain and talk negatively about the situation the negative stuff will happen.  Not because God makes it happen--God didn’t make the Israelites treat Him with contempt, they chose to do it themselves, they brought their heartache on themselves.  We do the same thing.

But God tells us in Colossians 4:6--”Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

This isn’t telling us to only say “nice” things.  It says to be full of grace, seasoned with salt.  The seasoned with salt means to have it mean something.  It needs to be worth hearing.  We can speak just to speak and have it be nice, but if it doesn’t say something worth listening to then we shouldn’t be speaking it.  It’s just fluff.  Now, how many of us can say that everything we say is seasoned with salt?  None of us can, but it is what we are told our conversation should be.  It is something to work on.  Why?  Because there is power in our words. 

How many times do we talk about a situation instead of doing something about it.  Sometimes we talk about it to the point that we get fearful of our situation.  Once we are fearful we do not act.  We talk ourselves out of doing what we should be doing.  There are things that happen in our lives that we must deal with.  But talking about it often leads to a misunderstanding of the real situation.  (Talking about it can be in our heads as well.)  A good example to think about is how we deal with a problem teenager.  I know, I had one.  You see, there aren’t too many parents that don’t have a problem teenager.  They don’t have to be doing drugs and drinking to be a problem.  When teenagers get rebellious--they are a problem.  The struggle for us parents is how to deal with them.  Unfortunately, the struggle at home can get so great that we feel we need an outlet--we need to talk about it.  But 90% of the time when we talk about it we are complaining and whining about the child and not doing anything constructive to change the situation.  Colossians 4:6 says to let our conversation be full of grace--seasoned with salt.  When we are complaining about a situation, we are not being full of grace--seasoned with salt.  We are simply complaining.  Worse than that, we are adding to our own problem by talking negatively about it.  We have just now gotten ourselves into a frenzy about what a rotten kid we have.  We also have spoken enough negative words that we start believing our kid really is just like what we said.  He may be, but it is our job to raise the child in God’s ways, and God’s way is not to grumble and complain about a problem--His way is to deal with it.  That means praying, disciplining, facing the kid--not hiding from him, punishing--doing it all because we love him, not because we are angry and hurt. 

This is just one example of how we complain and get ourselves into trouble.  Another is when we get a bill for something that is not ours.  Sometimes it is a very simple fix, other times it takes some work to get it corrected.  But the point is that there is something that can be done.  Of course, the first thing is to pray and to seek  God’s guidance in our conversations and actions for this situation.  Then we need to do the things we know to do.  Call the people or write them with the denial of owing the money.  Yet we can think about it or talk about it so much that we even get afraid to do that.  We let fear take over and don’t do the very simple things to do.  If we can’t do the simple things, what are we going to do when the real heat comes.  You see, life has many things that happen.  Not all of them good.  But it is up to us to persevere--press on--through the difficulties so that we can claim the prize.  No one has ever said life will be easy, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it.  Our own talking and thinking about situations (not with talk full of grace, seasoned with salt) can create a much bigger problem than actually exists.

Learn from the Israelites.  It took 10 times over 3 years of grumbling for the people to make God’s anger burn--how many times do we grumble?  Could we be facing God’s punishment now--without realizing it?  

Our negative talk not only has an impact on the people around us and that particular situation--it can add up to the point that we actually show a contempt for God.  That is not anything any of us want to do.  The only way we can be sure of not doing it is to adjust our thinking and talking--trusting in God even when the situation seems hopeless.