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CHAPTER 14
THANKFULNESS OR COMPLAINING?
Thankfulness! What does it really mean? It means to be appreciative, giving credit to the
one who has either given us something or done something for us. To feel a sense of
gratitude toward someone for what they have done or given, or to wish that we could do
something for the one who has been so good to us in return. All of these things I believe fit
in with an attitude of being thankful.
Remember the Scripture about the ten lepers and how only one of them came back to thank
Jesus for healing them? How sad that only one returned to give JESUS the recognition due
Him for what He had done for them.
We are told by Paul to give thanks always, in all circumstances. We are told to “Rejoice
always” (1 Thess 5:18 & Eph 5:20). We are told that we as Christians should continually
walk in an attitude of thanksgiving to our Creator for all that He has done for us. Remember
that He has made a plan to redeem us (redeem means bought back by the original owner).
The price of our redemption was the blood of His precious Son, who died on the cross at
Calvary (buying us back from Satan’s kingdom by the blood of His own dear Son, and then
transferring us into His marvelous kingdom of light! But that is not all, we must also be
thankful for the rest of the plan. This being that Jesus would rise again on the third day,
after He was crucified. Because of this, He would make us to rise again as He did, and we
would be with Him in eternity forever. He would give us eternal life by His death. In addition
to all this, He promised to send us the Holy Spirit who would live inside of us, even while we
are still here on this earth, to be down payment of the promise of that eternal life
(resurrection life); which we will receive when Jesus returns. And not only that, but we have
been given His protection as well. He protects us from many dangerous situations that
would normally befall us daily like: car wrecks, running over people while backing up in
parking lot, keeping us from getting all kinds of sicknesses, healing us when we do get sick a
lot of the time, and watching over us day and night as His dear children. God has also
adopted us into His family as children of the Most High, making us His own sons and
daughters, to be joint heirs with Christ His Son. He is right now preparing a place for us in
heaven, so that we can be with Him forever. Then, He has promised to come back and get
us when He has finished preparing that place for us (John 14:2), giving us a new body when
we die that will live eternally, with no sickness, disease, deformity or blemish of any kind.
Our new bodies will be a body like His own! In addition to all of this, we will even judge the
angels. We have so many promises made to us for both now and for the future. How can
we live for even a moment without possessing a thankful heart toward our Father and our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? We can never deserve His amazing grace and goodness
that He has bestowed upon us already, not to mention all that He has for us ahead.
So often we get caught up in our circumstances or our feelings. If things are not going well
for us at the moment, we don’t feel like praising Him or giving Him thanks. We are not told
that we have to “feel” anything when we give thanks or praise the Lord. We are told to DO
IT! It is a sacrifice of praise that is pleasing to our Lord, and it is a sweet smelling savior
when we do praise and worship Him. He is so worthy and we are so indebted to Him. Even
if we are told one day that we have some fatal disease that will soon take our life, how can
we not still let our thankfulness rise up to Him; because of all that He has ALREADY
accomplished for us? It is in the midst of tragedy, bad news or a crisis that people are
watching our lives to see how we are going to respond to the situation. If people see that
we are giving God glory and thanking Him and trusting Him in the midst of our trial, because
we know that He has everything under control, they are impressed. For example I heard
many of the Christian Katrina victims praise the Lord even in the midst of their great losses.
They knew that their heavenly Father would take care of them, even as Job was taken care
of, after his great loss of children, livestock and health. This is our greatest hour when trials
hit us as it is then that we can show the world something real! Your response to your trial
can do much to glorify God, being used as an instrument, which God can use to bring the
unsaved to Jesus. Unbelievers are truly witnessed to by our FAITH! It is in these times of
crisis that our FAITH is drawn upon and faith seems to come pouring out of us by the Holy
Spirit. As people watch us and see this faith coming out from us, then God is glorified. Let
us remember that we grown from faith to faith and glory to glory. We go from trusting the
Lord with small things, and seeing that He is with us, in these small things. Our faith then
grows, and we are able to trust God with a larger problem or situation. Until finally we grow
in our faith to the point where we can throw in the towel and say, “Oh Lord, you take all of
my life, I can’t run it right anyway, so You take the reigns, You decide my destiny and You
cause Your plans to be accomplished through me. I let it all go and I will trust You, my Lord
and my Savior.”
We were warned by Jesus Himself that in this life we would have tribulation and troubles of
all kinds (John 16:33). We will not live on this earth without personal trials. This earthly life
will not be a bed of roses because we are in the midst of being perfected and changed from
faith to faith, in our hearts, in our minds and in our attitudes. The Bible says that even “Jesus
had to learn obedience through the things that he suffered” (Heb 5:8). And it seems that we
thick-sculled people have to go through situations the hard way sometimes, in order to learn
righteousness. We have been given the righteousness of Christ it is true, but it has to be
worked out in us experientially as we yield our wills to the Holy Spirit who is working inside of
us.
I know that when my son, Steven died, which was a tremendous trial that we went through, I
still had to “lift up my eyes to the Lord from whence cometh my help” (Ps 112:2). We had to
continue to live in thankfulness, knowing that our God does all things well, since He doesn’t
make any mistakes with us His beloved children, but only does what is in our best interest.
Therefore, we were able to praise our Father, thank Him and love Him dearly, even in the
midst of our terrible crisis. Losing Steven continues to pain us to this day, if we allow
ourselves to think about him for very long. It is like a wound, just under the surface of our
skin that never seems to go away. A situation on TV or a movie that we are watching can
trigger it off, causing husband and I to end up in a heap of tears. I have lost a husband,
parents, grandparents but nothing seems to hurt like the loss of a child to a parent. But still,
I am thankful, because I KNOW and TRUST my Lord that He does all thing for our good.
Romans 8:8.
Now, how about you? Do you go around the house, drive the car or sit in a quiet place and
just thank the Lord for what He has done for you? David meditated on the goodness of the
Lord day and night! This builds such love and appreciation for Him when we will do the
same. Then the words of the old hymns come to life inside of us, bringing us such
revelation, understanding and appreciation to our spirits.
Christmas carols mean so much more when we are walking in thankfulness. We seem to be
able to hang onto every word in the song. The Word of God states that we should, “sing
and make melody in our hearts” (Eph 5:19) unto the King of Kings! We can just sing what’s
in our hearts. God is not particular. It is our way of fellowshipping with Him as His dear
children, and God loves us to come into His presence and enjoy Him!
We can tell our children that they are to be thankful but they are watching us and take their
attitudes from us. If we are thankful our children see and hear that attitude coming from us.
They will be more prone to pick up that same attitude from us, learning thankfulness as well.
If we lecture them about the need to be thankful, yet they do not see this attitude emanating
from us, they are less likely to heed our instructions, resulting in unthankfulness. We so
often do what the teacher does.
Thankfulness is a mind set, an attitude that we are to set our mind to and keep it there.
Having a mind set of thankfulness ensures that we’ll experience the most peace and joy that
we can on this earth. Then when we are thankful and joy-filled, we begin to affect others. It’
s like laughing. Once someone starts laughing in a room, it is contagious. All of a sudden a
whole crowd of people begin laughing. How wonderful it would be if our thankfulness could
be contagious as well, affecting others in the same manner.
We must determine every day to be a blessing to each person that we encounter (Eph 5:18-
20). This takes work and an effort on our part.
What is the opposite of thankfulness? Complaining (or murmuring)! What a terrible word!
This is what the Children of Israel did continually. In Psalm 106:25-26 it tells us that, “They
murmured in their tents and God swore He would destroy them in the wilderness.” It kept
them from going into Promised Land. 1 Cor. 10:10 says, “and don’t grumble (complain) as
some of them did for that is why God sent His death angel to destroy them.” Complaining
and murmuring also causes many physical ailments such as neuritis and neuralgia in our
bodies. It makes blood pressures go up. Murmuring causes people to become angry and
dissatisfied. When we complain or murmur we are not giving proper credit for what we have
already been given, by our Creator and Father.
Today people love to complain. Just take a few minutes and LISTEN to what people are
saying when you are in a crowd of people or when you overhear a conversation in a
restaurant or some other place. Oftentimes you will find people are either complaining about
something or gossiping about someone. Many times we use victimhood and complaining as
a way to either solicit attention for ourselves or get sympathy from people. We tell the sad
stories of our past, or we tell of our unhappy circumstances we are going through right now.
It is such an easy trap to fall into.
But who wants to be around a complaining woman (or man) who is always talking about
themselves? No One! When we ask someone in a casual greeting, either in person or on
the phone, “how are you?” we do not really want to know about their aches and pains and
problems in full description. We are just trying to open a conversation as a form of greeting.
Unless of course, we are asking someone we love and care about deeply, “How ARE you?
Tell me really! I want to know all about how you are doing? That is different than the casual
greeting we usually make on the phone or upon seeing someone.
Have you ever heard many elderly people when you ask them “how are you”, begin to
describe every symptom, pain, pill, doctor visit, hospital operation, and on it goes till you
want to run away! I have. It is all a way to get attention and sympathy.
But as Christian women, Jesus wants us to rise above the world’s way of looking at things
and become thankful women. Women who want to draw attention to what He has done for
us, giving God the glory, rather than focusing on our problems both past and present.
So let us examine ourselves to see if we are in the habit of complaining. I have fallen into
this trap and have examined myself occasionally to be sure that this is not an active habit in
my life. If I find that I have been complaining a lot lately, I have to go to the Lord and repent,
asking for forgiveness for complaining and not being thankful. I really am so thankful to Him
for all that He has done for me. I get back on track again. How about you?
THANKFULNESS OR COMPLAINING?
Thankfulness! What does it really mean? It means to be appreciative, giving credit to the
one who has either given us something or done something for us. To feel a sense of
gratitude toward someone for what they have done or given, or to wish that we could do
something for the one who has been so good to us in return. All of these things I believe fit
in with an attitude of being thankful.
Remember the Scripture about the ten lepers and how only one of them came back to thank
Jesus for healing them? How sad that only one returned to give JESUS the recognition due
Him for what He had done for them.
We are told by Paul to give thanks always, in all circumstances. We are told to “Rejoice
always” (1 Thess 5:18 & Eph 5:20). We are told that we as Christians should continually
walk in an attitude of thanksgiving to our Creator for all that He has done for us. Remember
that He has made a plan to redeem us (redeem means bought back by the original owner).
The price of our redemption was the blood of His precious Son, who died on the cross at
Calvary (buying us back from Satan’s kingdom by the blood of His own dear Son, and then
transferring us into His marvelous kingdom of light! But that is not all, we must also be
thankful for the rest of the plan. This being that Jesus would rise again on the third day,
after He was crucified. Because of this, He would make us to rise again as He did, and we
would be with Him in eternity forever. He would give us eternal life by His death. In addition
to all this, He promised to send us the Holy Spirit who would live inside of us, even while we
are still here on this earth, to be down payment of the promise of that eternal life
(resurrection life); which we will receive when Jesus returns. And not only that, but we have
been given His protection as well. He protects us from many dangerous situations that
would normally befall us daily like: car wrecks, running over people while backing up in
parking lot, keeping us from getting all kinds of sicknesses, healing us when we do get sick a
lot of the time, and watching over us day and night as His dear children. God has also
adopted us into His family as children of the Most High, making us His own sons and
daughters, to be joint heirs with Christ His Son. He is right now preparing a place for us in
heaven, so that we can be with Him forever. Then, He has promised to come back and get
us when He has finished preparing that place for us (John 14:2), giving us a new body when
we die that will live eternally, with no sickness, disease, deformity or blemish of any kind.
Our new bodies will be a body like His own! In addition to all of this, we will even judge the
angels. We have so many promises made to us for both now and for the future. How can
we live for even a moment without possessing a thankful heart toward our Father and our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? We can never deserve His amazing grace and goodness
that He has bestowed upon us already, not to mention all that He has for us ahead.
So often we get caught up in our circumstances or our feelings. If things are not going well
for us at the moment, we don’t feel like praising Him or giving Him thanks. We are not told
that we have to “feel” anything when we give thanks or praise the Lord. We are told to DO
IT! It is a sacrifice of praise that is pleasing to our Lord, and it is a sweet smelling savior
when we do praise and worship Him. He is so worthy and we are so indebted to Him. Even
if we are told one day that we have some fatal disease that will soon take our life, how can
we not still let our thankfulness rise up to Him; because of all that He has ALREADY
accomplished for us? It is in the midst of tragedy, bad news or a crisis that people are
watching our lives to see how we are going to respond to the situation. If people see that
we are giving God glory and thanking Him and trusting Him in the midst of our trial, because
we know that He has everything under control, they are impressed. For example I heard
many of the Christian Katrina victims praise the Lord even in the midst of their great losses.
They knew that their heavenly Father would take care of them, even as Job was taken care
of, after his great loss of children, livestock and health. This is our greatest hour when trials
hit us as it is then that we can show the world something real! Your response to your trial
can do much to glorify God, being used as an instrument, which God can use to bring the
unsaved to Jesus. Unbelievers are truly witnessed to by our FAITH! It is in these times of
crisis that our FAITH is drawn upon and faith seems to come pouring out of us by the Holy
Spirit. As people watch us and see this faith coming out from us, then God is glorified. Let
us remember that we grown from faith to faith and glory to glory. We go from trusting the
Lord with small things, and seeing that He is with us, in these small things. Our faith then
grows, and we are able to trust God with a larger problem or situation. Until finally we grow
in our faith to the point where we can throw in the towel and say, “Oh Lord, you take all of
my life, I can’t run it right anyway, so You take the reigns, You decide my destiny and You
cause Your plans to be accomplished through me. I let it all go and I will trust You, my Lord
and my Savior.”
We were warned by Jesus Himself that in this life we would have tribulation and troubles of
all kinds (John 16:33). We will not live on this earth without personal trials. This earthly life
will not be a bed of roses because we are in the midst of being perfected and changed from
faith to faith, in our hearts, in our minds and in our attitudes. The Bible says that even “Jesus
had to learn obedience through the things that he suffered” (Heb 5:8). And it seems that we
thick-sculled people have to go through situations the hard way sometimes, in order to learn
righteousness. We have been given the righteousness of Christ it is true, but it has to be
worked out in us experientially as we yield our wills to the Holy Spirit who is working inside of
us.
I know that when my son, Steven died, which was a tremendous trial that we went through, I
still had to “lift up my eyes to the Lord from whence cometh my help” (Ps 112:2). We had to
continue to live in thankfulness, knowing that our God does all things well, since He doesn’t
make any mistakes with us His beloved children, but only does what is in our best interest.
Therefore, we were able to praise our Father, thank Him and love Him dearly, even in the
midst of our terrible crisis. Losing Steven continues to pain us to this day, if we allow
ourselves to think about him for very long. It is like a wound, just under the surface of our
skin that never seems to go away. A situation on TV or a movie that we are watching can
trigger it off, causing husband and I to end up in a heap of tears. I have lost a husband,
parents, grandparents but nothing seems to hurt like the loss of a child to a parent. But still,
I am thankful, because I KNOW and TRUST my Lord that He does all thing for our good.
Romans 8:8.
Now, how about you? Do you go around the house, drive the car or sit in a quiet place and
just thank the Lord for what He has done for you? David meditated on the goodness of the
Lord day and night! This builds such love and appreciation for Him when we will do the
same. Then the words of the old hymns come to life inside of us, bringing us such
revelation, understanding and appreciation to our spirits.
Christmas carols mean so much more when we are walking in thankfulness. We seem to be
able to hang onto every word in the song. The Word of God states that we should, “sing
and make melody in our hearts” (Eph 5:19) unto the King of Kings! We can just sing what’s
in our hearts. God is not particular. It is our way of fellowshipping with Him as His dear
children, and God loves us to come into His presence and enjoy Him!
We can tell our children that they are to be thankful but they are watching us and take their
attitudes from us. If we are thankful our children see and hear that attitude coming from us.
They will be more prone to pick up that same attitude from us, learning thankfulness as well.
If we lecture them about the need to be thankful, yet they do not see this attitude emanating
from us, they are less likely to heed our instructions, resulting in unthankfulness. We so
often do what the teacher does.
Thankfulness is a mind set, an attitude that we are to set our mind to and keep it there.
Having a mind set of thankfulness ensures that we’ll experience the most peace and joy that
we can on this earth. Then when we are thankful and joy-filled, we begin to affect others. It’
s like laughing. Once someone starts laughing in a room, it is contagious. All of a sudden a
whole crowd of people begin laughing. How wonderful it would be if our thankfulness could
be contagious as well, affecting others in the same manner.
We must determine every day to be a blessing to each person that we encounter (Eph 5:18-
20). This takes work and an effort on our part.
What is the opposite of thankfulness? Complaining (or murmuring)! What a terrible word!
This is what the Children of Israel did continually. In Psalm 106:25-26 it tells us that, “They
murmured in their tents and God swore He would destroy them in the wilderness.” It kept
them from going into Promised Land. 1 Cor. 10:10 says, “and don’t grumble (complain) as
some of them did for that is why God sent His death angel to destroy them.” Complaining
and murmuring also causes many physical ailments such as neuritis and neuralgia in our
bodies. It makes blood pressures go up. Murmuring causes people to become angry and
dissatisfied. When we complain or murmur we are not giving proper credit for what we have
already been given, by our Creator and Father.
Today people love to complain. Just take a few minutes and LISTEN to what people are
saying when you are in a crowd of people or when you overhear a conversation in a
restaurant or some other place. Oftentimes you will find people are either complaining about
something or gossiping about someone. Many times we use victimhood and complaining as
a way to either solicit attention for ourselves or get sympathy from people. We tell the sad
stories of our past, or we tell of our unhappy circumstances we are going through right now.
It is such an easy trap to fall into.
But who wants to be around a complaining woman (or man) who is always talking about
themselves? No One! When we ask someone in a casual greeting, either in person or on
the phone, “how are you?” we do not really want to know about their aches and pains and
problems in full description. We are just trying to open a conversation as a form of greeting.
Unless of course, we are asking someone we love and care about deeply, “How ARE you?
Tell me really! I want to know all about how you are doing? That is different than the casual
greeting we usually make on the phone or upon seeing someone.
Have you ever heard many elderly people when you ask them “how are you”, begin to
describe every symptom, pain, pill, doctor visit, hospital operation, and on it goes till you
want to run away! I have. It is all a way to get attention and sympathy.
But as Christian women, Jesus wants us to rise above the world’s way of looking at things
and become thankful women. Women who want to draw attention to what He has done for
us, giving God the glory, rather than focusing on our problems both past and present.
So let us examine ourselves to see if we are in the habit of complaining. I have fallen into
this trap and have examined myself occasionally to be sure that this is not an active habit in
my life. If I find that I have been complaining a lot lately, I have to go to the Lord and repent,
asking for forgiveness for complaining and not being thankful. I really am so thankful to Him
for all that He has done for me. I get back on track again. How about you?
| Women for the Lord www.WomenfortheLord.com "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies." Proverbs 31:10 |
