40acts: Ready to ActSample

Act 23: Can’t Complain  

It’s all too easy to focus on what we don’t have instead of being grateful for all that we do. Let’s turn ‘counting your blessings’ on its head. You’ve heard of the swear box, now consider the whinge tin! Yes, every time you hear yourself moaning or complaining, pop a coin in. Put the tin prominently in your home or place of work and encourage others to take part. Every time you pay, take a moment to pray. 

We’ve all probably been in a workplace where the main topic of conversation is how bad everything is. It can be hard to imagine anything different, for those of us who instinctively start a good moan when anything difficult happens. It was hard for God’s people from the start.

The early steps of the people of God in the Old Testament are a picture of complaint. They were people who didn’t know God as Father. Their instinct was to reach for grumbling whenever things didn’t go their way. ‘Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused’ (Numbers 11:1). In Exodus, when they ran out of water, they were bitter. Soon enough, God showed himself as a kind, providing Father by providing fresh water. But they had blocked themselves off from living as daughters and sons who knew God as Father. 

Complaining is social glue for communities who don’t know who they are. But, through Jesus, we have something far better. Philippians 2:14 says there is a new way available: ‘Do everything without grumbling or arguing.’ Living beyond complaining is achievable and attainable. If it’s in the Bible, God knows it’s possible for us. He wouldn’t lead us into something that he hasn’t made a way for.

We find the way to a Philippians 2:14 lifestyle when we know God as Father. It’s only then that we’re freed to live beyond complaint. We know we have a good Father who will give and keep on giving, who won’t hold back any good thing (Psalm 84:11), who is the provider of every good gift (James 1:17). What lives in our hearts comes out of our mouths, and our words change.