Philippians 2:14-15-Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
He’s got to be joking right? All things? All things without complaining?
I mean, come on…Does he know where I work? (I’ve had those jobs!)
I’m working hard, as other people are standing around!
I mean you want to walk up to those lazy people, and ask them, “How are you still working here!”
Then I hear about people complain about their spouse….They don’t clean house, I always have to pick after them, They leave the toilet paper roller empty, they don’t lift the lid, they cook bad, they drive bad, and the list goes on!
We can all find things to gripe about, at home, at work, even on vacation!
We are never satisfied!
Paul is reminding us how to live life, how to enjoy life and how to make a difference in this life.
Does complaining ever change the situation?
If we complain enough, maybe it will for a while, but does our consent complaining draw people to Christ or push people away?
There are all kinds of things we have to deal with in life, those task that come unexpectedly, interruptions in your routine, then there those unwanted chores, that are left up to you, or having to clean up after a person or persons.
Waiting on that ungrateful customer, or being waited on by an ungrateful employee!
But Paul says…All things!
But all that we have, all that we been given, all that we are blessed with, we find it so easy to grumble!
Isn’t going to church, reading my bible, praying, trying to be a good person, isn’t that good enough?
I mean, everybody complains!
Everybody’s doing it!
We gripe about the weather! Either we have too much rain or not enough!
It’s either too hot or too cold!
I like the quote that says, “Everybody gripes about the weather but nobody does anything about it!”
We gripe about the government, about our jobs, about our spouse, about our children or about somebody else’s children!
Your right everybody does do it, that’s why God wants us not to do it!!
The world around you (Your inner circle) would recognize the difference in you, they would recognize the difference in the way that you handle things and the way they handle things, or maybe they would recognize the way you handle things this week, opposed to the way you handled them last week!!
You would stand out!!
You would be that light in a dark world, whether at home or at work, or where ever you are!
Complaining breeds complaining!! You put a group of people together and let one person start complaining, and before too long you will have the whole group complaining about something!
We may can stop ourselves from stealing this week, or killing someone, or lying, or committing adultery, but for you and I, for us not to complain about something, we are going to need help, we are going to need divine help to conquer this temptation!
How do we get there, how do we overcome this great temptation?
One way is thanking God for anything and everything.
"I was crying for shoes till I saw a man with no legs."
I sat there whole night praying,
Thanking Him for things I’ve got,
Rather than grieving for those things that I have not!”
