Wednesday Words of Encouragement: This Little Light of Mine

 

Philippians 2:14-16 ~ "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. 

A few years ago, I was teasing one of the teens at church about complaining about something and shared this Bible verse. However, it made me realize how often I fall into this same trap myself. 

I know that complaining and grumbling is not honoring of the Lord and yet, so often I do it anyway. I fall into the trap of letting negativity pour out of my mouth. I was convicted of this just yesterday and want to stop my need to complain. This may be something you struggle with as well. 

As a follower of Jesus, we are asked to surrender every part of our lives to Him which includes our attitude and our mouth. Would our families, coworkers or neighbors know we are Christians by listening to our speech? The real test of our faith is in our ability to do the hard thing which is control what comes out of our mouth. 

This world is full of people who complain about everything. They complain about the weather, their jobs, their spouse, their children, and their lives. They complain about others. Do we find ourselves doing the same thing? Do we join in with our own set of grumbling when we are unhappy about something? I do this more regularly than I want to and the Holy Spirit convicts me each time this happens. 

A complaining spirit is a sign that I'm not feeling particularly thankful or that I think I know what is best. Instead of being grateful for the things the Lord has blessed me with, I don't recognize that He may be working in a different way than I want or can see. I begin to look at what I don't have or how I'm not getting my own way. Instead of praising Him for how He will work through the trial in my lives, I keep my eyes fixed on the problem. 

I want to encourage you this week to work at having both a grateful heart and an uncomplaining attitude as we go through our days. I know that I want to work on being a light that points people toward God and not away from Him.