A Complaining Spirit

By Glenn Miller

GOD’S WORD: – “Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.” – Philippians 2: 14-16

Have you noticed that people complain about everything: the weather, the government, sports teams, family, friends, others’ imperfections, our own imperfections, etc. I think that our bent towards having a complaining spirit is based on a misconception that the rest of creation exists to make us happy.

If the weather is not a perfect 70 degrees and sunny, it cuts into our happiness. If the driver of another car demonstrates idiotic behavior, it cuts into our happiness. If our family or friends do not love us the way we want to be loved, it cuts into our happiness. Moreover, if I view things as cutting into my happiness, it means that I have surrendered to the overriding view of self-centeredness and maybe even self-worship. My attitude of self-centeredness will lead me to respond to life with a complaining spirit.

One problem with self-centeredness is that it prohibits understanding what God is doing in our lives right now. All we can “see” is what makes us unhappy; what is imperfect in our world and in others. God is at work in each one of our lives. He did not place us on planet earth to make us happy. He put us here to make us holy and glorify Him.

Pursuing holiness develops God-centered character.

Pursuing happiness adds to our self-centeredness and never develops good character qualities.

The cure for a complaining spirit is this: replace it with a spirit of contentment.