September 22, 2021 — What do you have to grumble about?

“I had an interesting discussion with one of my neighbors last night,” Stan commented one morning. “What he had to say about his own faith walk is a real warning to me.”

“How so?” I asked. “What was he talking about?”

“Grumbling,” Stan replied.

“Grumbling?” I repeated. “How so?”

“”He said that grumbling was a problem for him and that one day he was really taken to task by the Holy Spirit through a friend who asked him what he had to grumble about.”

“How did that come about?”

“My neighbor said that it was common for him and a group of other people from the church to go to breakfast every Sunday after the church service. One Sunday, as they were having breakfast, he started his usual grumbling.”

“About what?” I asked.

“The church service. The music wasn’t any good. The pastor’s message was too long. It was too cold in the sanctuary. He had a hard time finding a parking space. All sorts of things.”

“That sounds like a lot of grumbling,” I commented.

“My neighbor said the same thing,” Stan replied. “And he said that one of his friends at the table took him to task by saying something like, “You sure do grumble a lot.”

“Wow!” I responded. “That must have hurt.”

“My neighbor said that it didn’t hurt so much,” Stan replied, “but that he was instantly convicted by what his friend said. He took it to heart, and then, when he got home, he took it to God in prayer, asking if his friend was right.”

“Then what?” I asked.

“My neighbor said that the Holy Spirit clearly spoke to him and opened him to see, rather than all the stuff he grumbled about regularly, that he had a lot for which to be thankful.”

“Like what?” 

“The assurance of salvation,” Stan replied. “Along with the eternal life of being allowed to know God the Father and Jesus the Son in an ever-deepening personal relationship before he steps into eternity. God’s provision of all he is allowed to enjoy. The freedom to be a part of what God is doing to establish and build His kingdom.  All sorts of things, but he said that the real clincher was when the Holy Spirit made it clear why he grumbled so much.”

“”Why was that?”

“Failure to take the first step of discipleship,” Stan said, “the failure to deny self. And it’s the same for me and I think for each one of us. If I don’t get my feelings of self out of the way, I can too easily have the tendency to grumble.”

“Keep in focus that we really have nothing to grumble about,” I commented.

“Exactly,” Stan replied. “A grumbling Christian is not a pretty sight!”

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Bible verses to consider:

Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Philippians 2:14.

Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 1 Corinthians 10:10.

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for showing me that I have nothing to grumble about, but have an infinite number of things about which to be thankful, beginning with your provision of life eternally with you when it’s time. Thank you for the gift of being allowed to know you and Jesus in an ever-deepening personal relationship. I confess that too often my tendency is to grumble when things don’t go my way, I don’t get what I want, and all of that self-focus. Please forgive my self-centered grumbling, and please lead me in focusing on all of your provision for which I have to be thankful. Help me not to be a grumbling Christian. Thank you I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Think on this:  A grumbling Christian is not a pretty sight. Do you agree with that? Why or why not? Do you have the assurance of salvation for which you can be thankful? If no, why? If you do have the assurance of knowing you will spend eternity in God’s presence, does your thankfulness for that outweigh any tendency to grumble about anything on this side of eternity? If you sense some changes in not grumbling may be in order, how are those changes going to occur? Is that what you want? Why or why not?