Grumbling and Complaining

Don’t we hate this in other people? So why is it we can’t see it in ourselves? It’s almost our default mode. We slip right into it. Example, I go to get my morning coffee and the same lady is there each day. We’re either complaining that’s it’s Monday, weather is terrible or I couldn’t sleep at all last night! It’s so easy to get into that mindset and one that’s hard to escape.

Listen to what the apostle Paul tells the Philippians in chapter 2 verses 14-15a: ¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”^[a]

What? Do everything??? That’s what it says. You mean even if I don’t like my co-worker? Even if I don’t like the preacher? Even if my friend forgets to call?

Paul says that we do this so “we can become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” We certainly live in a warped and crooked generation. Let me challenge you as I challenge myself to quit the grumbling and complaining. Find the good in others. Find the good in yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with joy. You might just start to see that being a child of God is really the abundant life.

Hold fast my friends. I love you.