Why So Many Complaints?
1 Thessalonians 5:17-20 Amplified Bible (AMP)
17Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly]; 18Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will]. 19Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit; 20Do not spurn the gifts and utterances of the prophets [do not depreciate prophetic revelations nor despise inspired instruction or exhortation or warning].
My daughter is 18 and she will turn 19 in about a month and a half. For most of us who have teenagers or have been around teenagers we know that they have an inner battle going on, they want to be grown up and they are fighting to carve out their own way, BUT on the other side they often want mama or daddy to do it for them, they even will fall into baby mode. My daughter is a vibrant young woman, she is intelligent and ingenious, creative and strong, but she is no different, she can turn into a precocious 10 year old when pressure comes or things are not working out the way she thinks that they should. There are days where she is my biggest help and days where my complaint box is overflowing about how her life is not flowing the way she wants. Those are the days I need to pray hard, because it is those days that I have come to understand that she is most insecure about who she is and where she is going, and she is acting out because it is easier to act out then to articulate that she is scared to death about the next move or undertaking in her life.
Does that description sound familiar to anyone? It did to me as I read it back in my mind before I even put it to paper. It sounded like me. It sounded like days, weeks, and months of my life that I have had in the past complaining to God about all that was not right, about all that had gone wrong, about all that had been taken from me, about all that people had done to me. I know for a fact there have been days where I am sure God wanted to turn off my connection to Heaven because I was on a no thankfulness diet with an all complaints menu. It wasn’t until approximately almost two and half to three years ago when my parents were going through major physical challenges, I was going through a divorce that was hell on earth and my health came under attack, my children were feeling the effects of the divorce process in a horrible way and financially it was the worse it had ever been; that is when I had to realize that any day that I could sit up and get up out of bed was a great day. I had to learn to focus on what was good. I had forgotten that any day that I wasn’t kicking up dirt was a good day. I had to remember that any day I could hold down food was a blessing (because there was a three month period that I could not, because of stress and migraine headaches). I had to learn to that any day I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face was beautiful, and any day I saw all my family still alive and in what my Grandmother used to say was “a reasonable portion of health and strength,” was a blessing, and any day that I heard the laughter of my children was a miracle within itself. But more importantly I had to learn that any day I woke up understanding the magnitude of God’s love for me and how He was thoughtful enough and gracious enough to provide me salvation, I was better than I ever had been. I had to come to understand that instead of complaining that my marriage was over I began to thank God for what His plan was for my life and take solace in the fact that He knows what is best for me and obviously that was not His best for me.
What is it that you have been complaining about? What is it that has you in a place of unrest and in the mode of complaining? Understand that our complaints often come from elements in our life we cannot control or we do not understand the movement of God in. But it is when we come into a place where we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and to abide with us that we can see things differently. The Holy Spirit allows us to see truth and He provides us spiritual revelation and understanding that we will often miss because of our humanity and its fleshly reliance keep us blinded and in a state of confusion. Life is not perfect, but look at all that is right, all that is good, all that is of a good report and pure in thought; it is these things that will lessen or eliminate the complaints and place a Spirit of Thanksgiving, peace, trust and renewed faith within us. If we can see how much God has done for us and all that He has kept us through and all we have survived, our tone would be different and our attitude would improve…If we seek the mind of Christ our thoughts and speech would come into line with the things of God and we would trust and believe that ALL things are working out for our good, and NO good thing will God withhold from us if we walk up right before Him! So tell me as you look around yourself today and observe how much you do have, “why so many complaints?”
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