Referenced Scripture(s): Philippians 2:14-16, Job 1:13-2:10, Job 19:25, 2 Corinthians 5:7,
"Do all things without complaining and disputing, 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, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain."
In this portion of scripture we see Paul giving instruction to the church in Philippi on how they should conduct themselves when "doing all things"; pretty all-encompassing isn't it? In verse 14, we see an instruction that I myself have failed at more than once before and one that I will probably fail at again before all is said and done. Paul says, "Do all things without complaining?" As we read on through verses 15 & 16 we see that if we do all things without complaining and disputing we will become blameless and harmless children of God without fault and that we will be as lights in the world. These are some very powerful benefits that we can walk in just by keeping a good attitude and do all things without complaining or disputing.
I have to admit that I find myself complaining about things more often than I'd care to admit. We get so caught up in our lives and what we are trying to
accomplish and we loose sight of why we are doing what we are
doing. Then today, I was thinking back to some interactions I had with some friends at church earlier this week and how their negativity towards an aspect of the ministry really bothered me. Then it hit me, "I wonder how God feels when all we do is complain about anything and everything?" I mean we live in a fallen and sinful world and sometimes bad things happen to good people. I'm not trying to make light of your specific situation by any means either but very few of us here in America have room for any kind of justifiable complaining. When I start to have a pity party for myself and start complaining of "how bad" I think I have it; I am always led to recount the life of Job (see Job 1:13-2:10).
In the book of Job and the recap of his life we learn that he literally lost everything. His family, his possessions, his health; everything was taken from him. If anyone in history every had a reason to justifiably complain it would have been Job, but he knew that God was in control and trusted him. There is another key aspect as to why we may tend to complain; we are not fully trusting in God. Instead of complaining Job chose to trust in God and in the midst of his circumstances makes a profound statement, "I know that my Redeemer lives" (Job 19:25). What I believe Job meant by this is, "Even though I many not see it or it doesn't look like there is a God in heaven based on my situation, I know my Redeemer lives". Rather than allow himself to wallow in self-pity in what he could see happening all around him he made the choice to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
So how do we practically combat this complaining & disputing part of our flesh? I have found that we must daily renew our minds (Romans 12:2) this
helps us in keeping our eyes focused on where they should be; on Christ.
It's when we lose sight of Christ in our day to day that we tend to start complaining
about our circumstances. We also need to know what God's Word says about us; how can we walk in faith if we don't know that we are supposed to? How can we know that no weapon formed against us shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17) or that greater is He that lives in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4), if we are not learning it by reading and studying the Scriptures where we find these truths? If we don't know about the Biblical ammunition we have access to then what are we going to fight the enemy with?
Take Care & God Bless,
-E
No comments:
Post a Comment