Articles
A Casual Compliant
A Casual Complaint
Drugs, violence in school, filth on TV, road rage, economic troubles, and divorce. People have groaned and complained about these subjects for years. Has the murmuring ceased the practice of corrupt behavior? Has our little “complaining” huddle at the last ball game made a difference? Did our “pow-wow” session with some of our friends at the kitchen table changed anything? Did it feel good just to “get it off your chest”?
At first, you probably thought a casual complaint about a particular issue was justified. You were upset at the time. You could have been offended. You may have deserved better treatment than what you received. You were probably in a hurry. Whatever the complaint was, has it turned into a constant complaint? Has it been one of those stories you have told over and over to whomever you thought needed to hear it? Has it settled in as a “pet grudge”?
Keeping your faith alive depends on letting go of complaints or grudges. 1 Peter 2:1 exhorts us by saying “Putting away all malice…long for the spiritual milk…that ye may grow thereby unto salvation”. Your murmuring does not provide an opportunity for us to live by faith, because it takes so much time. Grudges hinder services, and you look at some of the amenities to life as what you deserve. Service in the kingdom is a blur, maybe a faint idea. All you have are those unsightly stains on your soul.
Push grudges out. Leave them alone. Do not be resentful (2 Timothy 2:24). It will clear your mind to receive from God what your heart needs. You will be able to spread your wings of faith into areas where God needs you. The complaints we have always had need to be trashed if our service in the kingdom is to bring glory to God. If we hold on to those grudges, God’s work suffers, our faith is weakened, and we are not able to hold on to much of anything else, especially the hand of God…
