Complaints

Everyone else in the family is asleep at this hour. I just flipped through some channels and found nothing good on television this evening. And so, I scanned through my phone and landed on Facebook. 

Looking through my Facebook timeline I found a common theme. So, I decided to spend a few minutes complaining about the amount of complaining that people participate in. 

The Greek word for “complainer” means “one who is discontent with our lot in life". Complaining steals our joy and our peace, and it rarely productive. Perhaps we find one or two others that agree with us yet they are rarely ones that can bring results and answers to our complaints. 

Often we complain to one person, which leads to complaining to another, and then several more. I've thought before that if we call it "venting" then it is still acceptable. Yet our "venting must stop before we are "steaming" lest we "boil over". 

And I wonder if complaining on Facebook doesn't do more harm than anything else. Does the occasional "like" mean that much to us? Does it bring with it a feeling of worth or acceptance? For ever comment of support, keep in mind, that dozens are reading and disagreeing with your argument - and your attitude. Keep in mind that, with each complaint you broadcast, you are building on to the culture of discontent, impatience, and hatred. 

We have been complaining since the very beginning. The very first complainer was Adam who, after he and Eve disobeyed God, he complained to God that “the woman you put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it”. 

So, what does God think of complaining? What are we - as Christians to do when we are "disconnect with our lot in life"? Two passages come to mind, the first is a command, the second is a teaching. 

(Philippians 2:14-15) Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.

(James 4:1-3) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

What are we to do? Stop grumbling! Stop complaining! Start praying! Seek God's heart! Ask God for our desires! And be content in Him!