Have you ever met a chronic complainer? He or she is the kind of person that you
shudder to ask, “How are you today?” You
know that you are going to hear a list of problems, ailments and maladies. I’m not talking about people who have real
health problems that debilitate them, but the person whose hangnail is the
worst hangnail ever, whose cold is always worse than the flu, and whose
frustration at not being able to afford a latte is worse than someone else’s
struggle to pay the mortgage.
Do you know someone like that? Their very presence is draining because of
the way they accentuate the negative and diminish the positive. (I sometimes worry that I’m a complainer;
that I go about griping when, in truth, I am so blessed.)
As I read Psalm 64, though, it seems that
there is a place for complaint in our walk with God. David teaches us to pray, “Hear my voice, O
God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.”
What do we have to complain about? How about the constant threat and temptation
that we experience from the devil, the world, and our sinful nature?
Martin Luther wrote in the Large Catechism, “This,
then, is what ‘lead us not into temptation’ means. It refers to times when God gives us power
and strength to resist the temptation.
However, the temptation is not taken away or removed. While we live in the flesh and have the devil
around us, no one can escape his temptation and lures. It can only mean that we must endure trials –
indeed, be engulfed in them. But we say
this prayer so that we may not fall and be drowned in them.”
I don’t like be surrounded by
temptation. I don’t like that I stumble
and fall. I don’t like that I am
surrounded by sinful people who also give in to temptation, and then their sin
impacts my life. I don’t like that
people say unkind things, that some people plot behind other people’s backs,
and that we gossip so freely about one another.
These are things that are worth complaining about, and bringing them
before the Lord in prayer. So complain away – about our sin, temptations,
and spiritual struggle!
Our frustration at living in a broken world
is offset by God’s justice. The
wickedness of the world and those who are in it will not stand. Indeed, God has already confronted that
wickedness in a most amazing way in Jesus’ cross as the innocent Son of God
died for sins which were not his own, and we then get to live in innocence that
is His through faith in Him. In this way
He is both just and justifier – the one who always does right and also makes us
right with Himself. Yet there is a day
when Jesus will return and those who have refused to be made right with God
(aka the wicked), who have resisted His loving forgiveness and salvation, will
be silenced and God will put all things to right.
This puts us in an interesting position. We complain because of the impact of sin on
our lives, but we also have reason to rejoice.
“Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD and take refuge in Him! Let all the upright in heart exult!” We rejoice because God has won the victory
over sin and death. As annoying as our
complaints are, what can this world do to us?
Stab us in the back? Hurt our
feelings? Beat us? Kill us?
Take away our birthdays? Perhaps! But even if they do, it won’t change
anything. God has made us His own and
has promised that we will live forever.
And we will.
Father, when I complain let me complain about the right things. And even as I complain let me rejoice that
you have given Jesus to save me, that I may be Your own and live with you in
everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Amen.
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