Getting Pushed Around - Things that go squeak in the light.
One day I walked into supermarket and grabbed a shopping cart. As I started to move the cart, it started making the most horrid noises and squeaks. On top of that, it seemed to have a mind of its own and wanted to constantly pull to the right. After going a few feet with this cart, I thought to myself that I could go back and get another shopping cart, but for some odd reason I chose to continue using that cart. Needless to say, using that cart was publicly embarrassing, the whole store knew where I had been and where I was going. As a result of that noisy cart I made a tactical decision to only shop for the bare essentials with the shortest path through the store. A week passes by and I go back to the same supermarket and I pull out a shopping cart and begin to go shopping. This time I noticed the cart was absolutely dead quiet when I pushed it around. It also was a joy to push around and I could literally guide the cart with one or two fingers with very little pressure to make it turn right or left on a dime. The difference between this cart and the cart a week before was like night and day. Because the cart was so responsive, I actually did extra shopping!
This little story exemplifies how we are in the hands of the Lord. We are either are a loud complaining servant or a trustworthy faithful servant. It is written, “Man's steps are ordained by the LORD.” (Proverbs 20:24) The key issue is the attitude in which we serve God. We ask God to use us and then we cry and complain because of the path before us as if God does not hear or understand what we are going through. Either God’s wisdom is infinite and He knows what He is doing or the constant complaining is right, these are mutually exclusive possibilities. If God places you on the way of suffering, He is doing so because He has a purpose.
God has never forsaken you or left you alone and He has always been there even before you knew Him. So when you complain before God about your circumstances, think about to whom you are directing your anger. Yes, complaining is a form of anger because you are accusing God of treating you unjustly. It is written, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” (Galatians 6:7) Since your complaining mocks God’s perfect love for you, someone has to pay the price. It is common misconception that God is a “big God” and He can take it (your complaining). Complaining is a sin and He will not “take it” and there is a penalty to paid for the wrath that your complaining generates. The person that paid that price is Jesus and do you want to keep heaping your unnecessary sins upon Him? Jesus paid the price for your salvation which includes the price for all of your complaining. Do not confuse God’s mercy through Jesus for an excuse to complain to God.
Worry is another form of complaining before God. Worry makes you feel like you are doing something when it is really out of your hands. You get an emotional pay off that strokes your own desires which leads you to worry more! Worry is based on the belief that you feeling bad about a situation will justify your own lack of perceived inaction. Will your worry move God in your behalf? The answer is no because worry is a form of pride. The opposite of worry is to take the situation before God and pray about it and even then you can take the attitude of worry into your prayers. Is God in control or not? Worry says God is not in control.
God is patient and kind and He will wait for you to understand for He is your Father. Complaining is a freewill choice you make and you have the freewill to choose to not to complain. A true sign of maturity is to embrace the suffering that God lays before you. Think of the story of Job and all that Job suffered through. In the end even Job complained in His heart and God showed him he had no reason to complain.
If you want God to use you, then stop complaining! Many times He will place you on the rough road to show you that you have nothing to fear and therefore nothing to complain or worry about. Complaining is a two fold waste of energy! First you waste the energy complaining and then second the complaining makes what you are doing in the Lord more difficult. This difficulty is not because God makes it difficult, but that you resist that which you know you should do. Consider a small child that throws a tantrum and how difficult it is to get them to clean up their room while they are throwing the tantrum!
Again I ask you, are you tired of being pushed around? If you serve the Lord, He is directing your steps and you have no reason resist His leading. God knows your limitations and He will strengthen you to accomplish what He has commanded you to do. God wants servants who serve Him with faithfulness and complaining is the opposite of faith.
Listen to how the apostle Paul embraced his own suffering, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)