Vol. 6, No. 25 – June 20, 2021
Standing at the Complaint Counter
Isaiah 26:3-4
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. –Isaiah 26:3-4
We make a valuable decision when we do not compare our own lives or opinions with what occurs in how another operates in their unsaved state or in their anger modes while traveling through life. We often do not catch that what happens in an unsaved person’s life is different than how God wants us to respond with ours. It is not partiality, it is expectations.
God loves us just as much as He loves others. Peter learned to say Truly I understand that God shows no partiality; in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him. –Acts 10:34-35
How do we go about measuring ourselves successful in life, based on what others have or have not done? Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things –1 Corinthians 13:4-8 The passage implicitly pursues the difficulty with our jealousies. Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to achievers. Criticizing another’s garden does not keep the weeds out of our own garden.
Complaining, whining, and being belligerent to someone who is not at fault, nor should assume the responsibility of our complaint is a tremendous waste of our energy; it also diverts the receiver of our complaint to legitimate handling of our issue. The Scriptures value people; thus, we should refrain from our anger toward others who are clearly not at fault. On top of that, when we are angry our tendency is to compare ourselves with the other party and our view is distorted. Do not be content to be the chip off the old block; be the old block itself. –Winston Churchill
Life Application
If we are going to be a people relating to others without anger, we dare not surrender our leadership capacity under Christ, to converse in a level-headed way. Weak men are the slaves of what happens. Strong men are masters of what happens. –George Stewart
This truth may surprise us: Our shoe does not tell our foot how big to grow. That is a wrong perspective. Having the right perspective drives us to act through the One who lives within us, rather than the circumstances—ours or theirs.
Have we noticed what fools we are in our attempts to get even? Love looks through the magnifying glass to enlarge love; anger and envy look through a microscope to show us “right.” We too often underrate or exaggerate what or who we face, based on our feelings.
Re-read the passage in 1 Corinthians 13. How does it speak to our situation in life, your heart?
When we deal with another, we need always listen to the Spirit inside us. He is certainly listening to us.
Too often we seek in others what we should seek in God.
