"Do all things without complaining and disputing" Philippians 2:14 NKJV
If there is one thing that we humans are good at, it's complaining, moaning and grumbling. We can really become expert at it, it takes little practice. The blame is always on other people and we find it difficult to admit that we are in the wrong and apologise. However, we really need to change this, as soon as possible.
The Israelites were extremely good at complaining. Moses had done a good job by bringing them out of Egypt, risking his own life; yet it was not good enough in their eyes. Let us not forget that, initially, Moses had tried to wriggle out of taking on this commission from God. Now, when he has performed what God had ordained, the Israelites were moaning. 'This is wrong, that was wrong, we should have remained in Egypt, at least we had comfort and decent food there'.
They had taken their eyes off God and wanted someone other than Mose and Aaron, to do the work. They had no faith in them and less in God, who was the cause of it all. They had even had the audacity to say, 'Is the Lord with us or not?' They were ungrateful people with very short memories.
When the chips are down and things are totally against you; do you complain? When someone, in your opinion, has let you down, do you moan and blame them? Paul tells us to, 'do all things without complaining and disputing'. Why is this? Because, 'God wants us to live upright lives, blameless and harmless, without fault'. My paraphrase Philippians 2:15-16. In fact, He would have us shining as Lights in a crooked generation. There is already lots of anger around from unbelievers who want to protest and take the law into their own hands. We should act differently by holding fast to the Word of Life.
Easy to write and read about I agree, but much more difficult to put into action. However, we do have a role model - Jesus Himself. It would help to read and pray through Philippians 2:5 - 11. This is the heart of Jesus and the mandate for how we should live. He suffered a terribly, cruel and painful death, a death that we were responsible for because of our sin. Therefore, is it really too much trouble to teach ourselves to live as He did; to love as He did and shine His love - the love of the Father, wherever we go?
Copyriight 2021 Grahame Howard
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