THE ANTIDOTE FOR COMPLAINING

THE ANTIDOTE FOR COMPLAINING

I WONDER WHAT WE WOULD find if we could do a little open-heart surgery on a complainer?  I think that it would show that grumbling can be a form of heart disease–rebellion against authority.  When  Job said, “Even today my complaint is bitter,” immediately he added, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him (God), that I might come to His seat”— in order to complain about the injustices done to him (Job.23:2-3).

I have a confession: I struggle with complaining.  Over the years, God has taught me a few things about the problem.

Usually, I’ve found, complaining is a loss of perspective, a failure to remember who is in control.  Such a person wonders, “Does God really know what’s best for me?”

Generally a grumbler feels dissatisfied with his lot in life, with the circumstances God has allowed to come his way.  Israel’s grumbling in the desert was symptomatic of a far more fatal disease: unbelief, a lack of faith that God knew what He was doing.

So what’s God’s prescription for this heart problem?  “Do all things without complaining and disputing,” Paul writes, “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil.2:114,15).  Are you guilty of grumbling, or does your light shine in your marriage and family?

It may be that you will want to memorize this verse, then lead your family in the same assignment.  I did.  And it helped!

NOTE:  This article came form the book Family Life and Marriage Bible by Dennis and Barbara Rainey.

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