560. What About Complaining? James 5_9

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry. And I'm grateful that you've joined me. This is a challenging verse to explain for me, because I fail so badly in this area.

James 5:9, "Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door."

I don't see any way around this command to not complain. And yet I complain a lot. Literally the   word is groan. In, the English Standard Version. It says, "do not grumble against one another brothers." I do believe that he's speaking to believers, but I'm not too sure it's constructive to complain about anything ever. When I look at my own life, I can't see anything constructive that came from a simple complaint. Often it was from a request to do something differently.  Often, I would need to ask someone else, "Hey, could we do this differently?" You can get into a situation where you're not comfortable or something doesn't seem right.

But asking to make something better is not complaining. I think this word "complain" and more accurately "grumble" here in the English Standard means whining, complaining about what's going on without being able to offer a suggestion or a way to make things better. We all know there's a right way to request something be changed.

And there are several bad ways.  Much of what happens in our world today, I think is people just complaining. They feel powerless to make a difference. And so, they just want to create some grief, or they just want to get applause from someone else who's complaining.

Look at what you talk about in social media. Look at the way we interact with one another in our world. Look at the way that different things happen. I want to do a better job of identifying what it is that I'd like to be improved and then request that something be changed. "Could we do this a different way?" is much different than just whining about the way it's being done.

Today, I want to challenge myself and I hope I challenge you. If you hear this, when it airs we're in the holiday season. It's easy to get tired and angry and frustrated with traffic and the things that are going on around us. I want to complain less. If you interact with me, ask me how I'm doing. Challenge me to complain less. Challenge me to have constructive, positive things to say, not to grumble so that I'll be judged, but rather to lift others up. To share and to offer a blessing and an encouragement, something that might motivate someone else. There's so many opportunities that we have to be a blessing to the people around us and in my mind, many of those opportunities begin by simply not complaining.

So today I want to listen to James. I want to not complain. What about you? Are you willing to pray and ask God to help you not complain as well? Let's try it today and see how God makes a difference in our day. Thank you so much for being a marketplace minister. Thank you for helping other people move one notch closer to Jesus.

I pray that you're actively considering following and practicing our five daily activities. I also would ask that you consider joining the Follower of One online community? It's at https://community.followerofone.org. And you can join for no cost. You can take part in our next Marketplace Mission Trip. We have a Marketplace Mission Trip coming up in about six weeks, and you can learn more about how to live your faith every day, integrate your faith into your daily life and experience the joy of following Jesus every day of the week. Check it out at https://community.followerofone.org.

Thanks very much.