Philippians 2:14 — “Do everything without complaining or arguing.”
One of the greatest causes of God’s judgment against the Israelites in their wilderness journey was their complaints against Moses and God. The Apostle Paul refers to one instance of complaining by the people that resulted in 14,700 deaths and he warns us, “And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel.” 1 Corinthians 10:10 (NET 2nd Ed.)
Complaining has this one reason that’s always behind it: we are focused on only one thin slice of what’s happening. Consider how one writer put it, “It makes no sense to stop in the middle of a story and complain that it didn’t turn out right.” (Frank Turek) But, sadly, that is what we are doing any time we complain. We are saying, in effect, “This isn’t turning out right!” even though we are only in the middle of the story.
Hence, the antidote to complaining is first of all the humility of honesty. We don’t know the whole story. We don’t know precisely how things are going to turn out in the end so what’s with the complaining?
The second part of the antidote is our trust in God. That means we put the situation we’re annoyed with in God’s hands with the understanding that he will work out a perfect answer for it. God is a master at redeeming even the most desperate of situations. We need look no further than our own experience. Haven’t we all complained of something only to realize, in time, that something very good came of it? So let’s take that to heart with the next thing we are tempted to complain about. Let’s take a step back and affirm that our great God has got this in his hands and those hands never fail to make all things beautiful in good time.
