“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,” Philippians 2:14-15
Today’s weekly meditation is an important reminder for us to stop complaining. Unfortunately, complaining is very easy for us. No child needs to be taught how to complain. We live in a culture that loves to complain. We complain about everything: the traffic, aches and pains, the government, the heat, the cold, our parents, our spouses, our siblings, going too slow, going too fast, complain, complain, complain, and all this when things are often going relatively well!
Paul’s command is even a more powerful condemnation of our propensity to complain when we realize he gives this command to a church that is being persecuted harshly and enduring much suffering, not to mention that Paul himself writes this from prison! The scripture is clear that God brings judgment on those who complain. I Corinthians 10:10 warns us not to complain as Israel did and subsequently were destroyed by the destroyer sent from God.
Complaining is the opposite of thankfulness, and it does not bring glory to God, which is our fundamental purpose. We need no training to complain. The same is not true for thankfulness. Thankfulness requires effort on our part to know what we should be thankful for and to make the commitment to express our thanks. It would be a good exercise when we wake up each morning to recommit ourselves to refuse to complain about anything that day and learn to be thankful.
If we want to be lights in the dark culture God has placed us, blameless and pure, we must learn how to avoid having a complaining spirit and how to cultivate a demeanor of thankfulness. As elect, children of God, full of the Holy Spirit, forgiven, headed to an eternity of paradise, surely we can find things to be thankful for 😊
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn
Photo by Dewang Gupta