What if I don't Grumble...
Can I go 1 hour without grumbling? Be thankful for one hour? One day? One week? One year? A lifetime? Exerpt from "You Can Be Happy Now"
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With God's gentle but persistent prodding, I began to realize that I grumbled about something at least a hundred times a day. When the spirit of grumbling ensnares us, we don't realize that it has become so much a part of our lives. I certainly didn't!
I started off each day grumbling the moment I was jarred awake by the loud clanging of my alarm clock. I grumbled even before my eyes opened: "I wish I didn't have to get up so early, I muttered. Why do I have to get up so early all the time? It's not even five a.m.!"
Then, stumbling to the bathroom, I grumbled at the growing number of aches and pains. At the mirror I saw how terrible I looked, then chided myself for wasting time on such foolishness. I needed to hurry or I would be late. The weather, too, caused me to grumble. It was always too cold or too hot.
Everything was too this or too that. I didn't verbalize all my complaints, of course, but grumbled away in my thoughts and in my heart. I was firmly and painfully ensnared in Satan's "grumbling trap." And I was displeasing God.
God persistently guided me to scriptures such as, Rejoice in the Lord always (PH. 4:4), but I was slow to heed and learn. I certainly was not a living example of an always rejoicing Christian. It was easy to excuse myself though - everyone I knew grumbled. Most did so aloud.
Fortunately, God didn't permit me to get away with such excuses. More and more I saw that I did not measure up to God's standard for His people. But how to change?
Step-by-step He persuaded me to try, and I could not resist His loving insistence.
Perhaps this book is God's loving insistence to you. Maybe you, too, have become an accomplished grumbler without even realizing it. Start listening to your thoughts. How frequently do you express the attitude, "I am not happy, so I am not rejoicing."
Seeing ourselves as grumblers is painful. But out of the pain comes hope. As we learn how to receive new instruction from God, we realize that He is helping us become the happy person that He wants us to be.
Soon we see a smile on our face when we look in the mirror. We can actually feel a desire to tell God how happy we are over the new joy He is helping us to find.
Praise to God that comes from the heart puts a light in our eyes, a spring in our steps - and a blessed knowledge that God is actually working in us.
What joy! What gladness to know that God is using each moment, whether pleasant or painful, to prepare us for our eternal dwelling place - Heaven. There will be no grumbling there! We must get ready. We can! And it is a joy to learn how.
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With God's gentle but persistent prodding, I began to realize that I grumbled about something at least a hundred times a day. When the spirit of grumbling ensnares us, we don't realize that it has become so much a part of our lives. I certainly didn't!
I started off each day grumbling the moment I was jarred awake by the loud clanging of my alarm clock. I grumbled even before my eyes opened: "I wish I didn't have to get up so early, I muttered. Why do I have to get up so early all the time? It's not even five a.m.!"
Then, stumbling to the bathroom, I grumbled at the growing number of aches and pains. At the mirror I saw how terrible I looked, then chided myself for wasting time on such foolishness. I needed to hurry or I would be late. The weather, too, caused me to grumble. It was always too cold or too hot.
Everything was too this or too that. I didn't verbalize all my complaints, of course, but grumbled away in my thoughts and in my heart. I was firmly and painfully ensnared in Satan's "grumbling trap." And I was displeasing God.
God persistently guided me to scriptures such as, Rejoice in the Lord always (PH. 4:4), but I was slow to heed and learn. I certainly was not a living example of an always rejoicing Christian. It was easy to excuse myself though - everyone I knew grumbled. Most did so aloud.
Fortunately, God didn't permit me to get away with such excuses. More and more I saw that I did not measure up to God's standard for His people. But how to change?
Step-by-step He persuaded me to try, and I could not resist His loving insistence.
Perhaps this book is God's loving insistence to you. Maybe you, too, have become an accomplished grumbler without even realizing it. Start listening to your thoughts. How frequently do you express the attitude, "I am not happy, so I am not rejoicing."
Seeing ourselves as grumblers is painful. But out of the pain comes hope. As we learn how to receive new instruction from God, we realize that He is helping us become the happy person that He wants us to be.
Soon we see a smile on our face when we look in the mirror. We can actually feel a desire to tell God how happy we are over the new joy He is helping us to find.
Praise to God that comes from the heart puts a light in our eyes, a spring in our steps - and a blessed knowledge that God is actually working in us.
What joy! What gladness to know that God is using each moment, whether pleasant or painful, to prepare us for our eternal dwelling place - Heaven. There will be no grumbling there! We must get ready. We can! And it is a joy to learn how.
posted by Mike at 7:02 AM
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