Do everything without complaining or arguing. Philippians 2:14
Complaining! We hear it wherever we go--in our families, among our co-workers, from our friends, and even in our churches. It is one of our most popular pastimes. Yet the apostle Paul admonishes us to do everything without complaining.
God knows that constant complaining is not good for us and usually ends up making us unhappy. When the children of Israel got caught up in constant grumbling, the results were tragic. Only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the Promised Land.
What do we do when something irritates or concerns us? Paul wrote, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29). Instead of grumbling, we are able to go to people and speak to them directly, firmly, and gracefully, trusting that Jesus Christ will help us to bring contentment to others. Through the Spirit's power we can replace the word of complaint with a word of grace. We demonstrate with our lips as well as with our lifestyle that we depend on the power of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, replace my words of grumbling with words of grace. Amen.
(Devotions from "The Abundant Life" copyright 1998, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time e-mailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: Isaiah 43-44 Romans 8:1-21
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"