Accepting Responsibility

 

 

 

 

 

Some Christians blame God when they can’t understand something that happens. Blaming Him seems to make them feel justified in their actions. 

 

Look at Adam. When God asked him if had eaten of the tree that was forbidden to him, Adam answered,  "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate” (Genesis 3:12).

 

Not only did Adam blame Eve for his sin, but he ultimately blamed God. Adam said that if God hadn’t given Eve to him, he would never have eaten the fruit of the tree. Instead of being accountable, he held Eve and God accountable. Justifying ourselves by blaming others might be a common human trait, but it is not the trait of the spiritually reborn person in Christ. 

 

Look at Jesus and the disciples in a boat in the middle of a storm.

 

“But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing’” (Mark 4:38)?

 

The disciples were terrified. Their reaction to the storm and its obvious threat was to get upset with Jesus, who was sleeping in the stern.

 

“Don’t you care we are perishing?” they cried out. Of course, He cared. When it appears that God doesn’t care about our difficulties, we sometimes cry out just like the disciples. We see the storm instead of Jesus and hold Him accountable. Of course, God cares if we are perishing. He gave us the very best He could to rescue us. He gave us Jesus.

 

How often do we think of God as uncaring? Doesn’t He care about the condition of the world? Doesn’t He care about cancer? And illness? And our hard struggles?  

 

Some people say God could stop these things if He wanted to, and since He doesn’t, He must not care. Others will conclude that God is actually behind the world’s problems, personal struggles, cancer, and illness. God does care that we are perishing. He sent His Son to prove it and to save us. This fallen world is the problem. Sin is the problem, and the fruit of sin falls on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.

 

If God controls these things, why were we given authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19)? 

 

We have an enemy who works evil in this world. Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy (1 John 3:8). The enemy comes against us with evil works to convince us that we are perishing and that Christ’s light has not overcome the enemy’s darkness. We are not perishing. Jesus is the One who has come to redeem us from Adam’s sin and the enemy’s works. Yet, so often, we blame God for evil and excuse ourselves from responsibility, just like Adam did. 

 

Why did Jesus need to rebuke the storm if His Father controlled it? Why did Jesus give us authority over the enemy if we do not need it? 

 

God has given us free will. Adam abused it, and we suffer. We abuse it, and we suffer. Others abuse it, and we suffer. God does not control you or anyone else. God is not controlling corruption, sin, or any evil thing. 

 

There is a saying or a rule of thumb which advises: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. 

 

Never attribute malice to God—never blame Him for what can be explained by our foolishness. What happens in our lives is the result of our choices or the results of the evil works of the enemy. We should never blame God for the enemy’s work, ours, or Adam’s foolishness.

 

Jesus loved us enough to redeem us from Adam’s sin. His work was complete, and He overcame the works of the enemy. We must accept the responsibility God has given us. God doesn’t control us. God is waiting for us to believe His Word, accept our responsibility, and walk in faith.

 

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/accepting-responsibility.html

 

 

Complete in Jesus Christ

 

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

—1 John 5:14-15

 

This is a powerful promise. The reason many people don’t ask God for His help is because they aren’t confident that they will receive what they ask for.

 

What is God’s will? His Word is His will. We don’t have to add “If it is Your will” at the end of every prayer. When we pray the Word and know we are asking in agreement with the Word, we can be confident that God has heard us. As 1 John 5:15 says, when we know God has heard us, we know we have what He has promised.

 

God hearing us depends on us asking according to His will (I John 5:14). This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t hear the concerns of our hearts when we pour ourselves out to Him. The Lord knows every word we pray. He hears every word that every person speaks, as revealed in Matthew 12:36. I John 15 speaks of hearing in the sense of God granting our requests. The Lord doesn’t answer prayers that disagree with His will. 

 

In the Old Testament, God moved in response to prayer. In the New Testament, God has already moved by grace and provided everything we would ever need through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Prayer for the New Testament believer in Christ is receiving what God has already provided by grace.

 

“And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:10).

 

Prior to salvation, we were incomplete, and there was a constant striving in all of us to satisfy that hunger. Through our new birth in Christ, however, we are complete in Him. Our hunger should be for the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what Christ has already given us. A huge part of temptation is dissatisfaction. When we see ourselves as lacking, we strive for something to satisfy, not realizing that in Christ, we lack nothing. We are complete in Him. Recognition of our completeness in Christ is a tremendous safeguard against the enemy's deception. Total satisfaction with Jesus disarms Satan’s lies. 

 

Adam and Eve would not have eaten the forbidden fruit if they hadn’t been dissatisfied with what they had. Through Satan’s lie, they were led to believe that they were lacking and didn’t have a perfect life (Genesis 3:5), but they really did. Their lives were perfect in the Garden. They were more like God before they ate the fruit than after eating it. Their dissatisfaction was the beginning that led to their sin.

 

Satan tempts us in the same way he came against Adam and Eve (2 Corinthians 11:3). A revelation of our completeness in Christ will help keep us from chasing after all the things the devil has to offer. If anyone tells us that Christ isn’t enough—that we are lacking in our relationship with Him, then that is the enemy trying to turn us away from our completeness in Christ.

 

In the same way that Paul said Jesus had the fullness of God in Him, we also have the fullness of God in us (Colossians 2:9-10). In our spirit-man, we are reborn perfectly complete as new creations. As new creations, we have received the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9). He is now in us, identifying us as His own. He has given us His righteousness and His authority. We can have boldness in the day of judgment. As Jesus is in this world, so as we (I John 4:17).

 

God is no longer the God on the “outside” for us having to satisfy. He is our Abba Father on the “inside” that Jesus has satisfied in our place. 

 

Jesus has already responded to our greatest need—the sin that separated us from God. His atonement for our sin is perfect and it is complete. Faith appropriates what God has already provided through grace. So our faith is a positive response to what Jesus has already accomplished. Jesus sits at the righthand of the Father. His work for us is perfectly complete and done (Hebrews 1:3). He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3). 

 

Adopted as God’s children and redeemed through Jesus’ blood for the forgiveness of our sins, we have been given an inheritance and have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. We have been given the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. We have been made one with God as a new man. We have been made fellow citizens with other believers in the household of God, and we have been made a dwelling place of God (Ephesians 1:5,7,11,13, 19-20, Ephesians 2:15, 22).

 

God has favored us with Jesus’s grace. There is no greater blessing than His finished work we have received. His complete and perfect work in us identifies us as His own.

 

When we pray for things that are God’s Will, do we pray with the confidence of our position in Christ? Do we come boldly before the throne of grace in our time of need? 

 

God has already provided everything we could ever need (Ephesians 1:3). His work is done. An Old Testament believer prayed, pleading for God to bless Him. A New Testament believer has been completely and perfectly blessed in the finished work of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t have to beg God to provide what the Word says Jesus has already provided by grace. 

 

Prayer, for a believer in Jesus Christ, is a way to receive what the grace of Jesus has already provided. A believer in Jesus confidently asks, believing that His Father will provide according to His will with the provision He has promised. 

 

Is this the confidence we have in Him? If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Do we agree with His Word? Do we know in our hearts that He hears us, and whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him?

 

When the truth we believe in our hearts agrees with the truth the Holy Spirit reveals in the Word, we are transformed. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. 

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/complete-in-jesus-christ.html

 

Knowing the True God

 

 

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

—1 John 5:20

 

Jesus Christ has come to give us an understanding of the “true” God. We may know Him who is “true” and that we are in Him who is “true.” This understanding, which John writes of, is different from acquired knowledge. Revelation knowledge is distinctly different than knowledge acquired by learning. Every true believer has access to revelation knowledge that does not come through study.

 

Luke writes of Simeon in Luke 2:26: “And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” No man had taught Simeon this. It was made known to him by the Holy Spirit, who imparts the true God to us.

 

Jesus told the disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).

 

Two of the greatest differences between Old Testament and New Testament believers in God is that those who know Jesus have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the quickened understanding the Holy Spirit gives. Four times in Jesus's words to the disciples the night before His crucifixion, He mentioned the Holy Spirit as being the source of God’s revelation (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-11, 13-15).

 

One of the Holy Spirit’s ministries is to bring back to our remembrance all that Jesus has spoken to us. This ministry of the Spirit is available to all believers who have received the Holy Spirit, but it does not operate in all Spirit-filled believers. It must be appropriated by faith. With a promise like this, there is no reason for believers to ever say they cannot remember the truths the Word of God teaches.

 

In 1 John 2:20, John tells believers, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.”

 

This certainly isn’t true in our physical “natural” minds. We can prove that by the times we forget or misplace something. This is speaking about the mind of Christ that is in our born-again spirits. Our born-again spirit man knows all things because he has Christ’s mind. But revelation understanding of God that we have received in our spirits is not automatic. It is available to those who hunger and thirst for it (Matthew 5:6). 

 

Without studying the Word of God with our natural minds, we will not acquire factual knowledge of God’s truth. Without meditating on the Word and seeking a revelation understanding of His Word, we will not know the “true” God who wants to reveal Himself to us.

 

Do you judge and rationalize with your natural mind what is revealed to you by the Holy Spirit? When you do, that is not faith. 

 

Paul writes, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For 'who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14-16).

 

As Christians, we cannot successfully live without God revealing Himself to us. To the natural mind, revelation understanding appears foolishness. With the mind of Christ that we exercise by faith, we can have a revelation knowledge of the “true” God. We can know Him who is “true,” and that we are in Him, “who is true.”

 

If you are determined to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), you will hunger and thirst to know the “true” nature of God Himself.

 

This prayer for the Ephesians is the revealed Word God gave Paul for them. It is the revealed Word of God for us, but for it to be true in our lives, it must become the revealed Word of God in us.  

 

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:15-20).

 

There was a time, before Jesus came to reveal the true nature of God, when it was written:

 

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

 

But in Jesus Christ, this is no longer true. Paul writes of these things in 1 Corinthians 2:10:

 

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”

 

Christ is no longer “veiled” to you. He is not hidden from you. He is hidden from the world’s understanding but is revealed to you so that you may know Him and the power of His resurrection. 

 

The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God so you can know Him—the “true” God who unconditionally gave His life for you. You have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit’s revelation understanding that is appropriated by faith. If you will surrender your natural rationalizing mind to the spiritual mind that is yours in Christ, you will open yourself to receive a spiritual revelation of God’s wisdom and knowledge. You will receive the spiritual understanding you need to live a crucified life in Christ and to walk by faith and not by sight, filled with the resurrection power of God.

 

This is the true God, and this is eternal life.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/knowing-true-God.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faith is “Knowing”

 

 

Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 

—1 Corinthians 2:11-12

 

 

This verse says that, as believers in Jesus Christ, we have received the Spirit of God so that we might know what He has freely given us. The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals the things God has given us in Jesus's finished work of grace. He unveils Jesus to us. He reveals God’s promises to come.

 

God wants us to “know” what He has freely given us. “Knowing” is not just “wishing” or “hoping” for something. It isn’t striving to convince yourself a promise in the Word is true for you. “Knowing” is the deepest intimacy of being one with God in Jesus. “Knowing” is the assurance of your promise, as if it has already happened. You may not know the specifics or the timing, but you “know” the outcome. 

 

When you have true faith in God, you don’t need to be convinced His promises are true. You know they are. 

 

“Believing,” for many Christians, is just “hoping.” When you are just “hoping,” you aren’t fully convinced. It is so hard to convince yourself that you believe and convince others that you believe. Faith isn’t working yourself up to believe. It is a real conviction so deep within you that it produces peace and quiet confidence. Faith is “knowing.”

 

Just as a vinedresser knows that the grape seed he has sown will produce grapes, he trusts that the seed's future harvest won’t fail. A believer trusts that the seed of God’s Word, sown in his heart, won’t fail. He doesn’t need to convince himself of God’s future promise. He is already convinced it is true in his life. Faith is the “evidence of things not yet seen” (Hebrews 11:1)

 

When you “know” in your heart that God’s promises are true for you, you go from working yourself up to “believe” to being “fully convinced.” The evidence of true faith in God is peace and assurance. True faith “knows” the future outcome. It sees God’s promise as though it already is. True faith sees what is not yet seen.

 

Colossians 2:9-10 says we are complete in Christ, and the fullness of God dwells in us. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says that we who are joined to the Lord are one spirit with Him. I John 4:17 says as Jesus is, we are also in this world. 

 

We are one spirit with God? We are as Jesus in this world? The fullness of God dwells in us? His truth is in us? His righteousness? His promises? If these are true, where are all these things in us? Certainly not in our flesh. These things are true in our born-again spirit. To be fully convinced, we must be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:23).

 

The Greek word for renewed in Ephesians 4:23 literally means to be “remade by an inward renovation.” Our minds need a total renovation from natural worldly thinking to the truth of who we are in our born-again spirits. We must be renewed by the "inside" of our spirits to the "outside" of our minds until the Holy Spirit totally renovates our natural reasoning and understanding. 

 

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

 

You have the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, dwelling in your born-again spirit. He will give life to your mortal body. You have the incorruptible seed of God’s Word in your spirit with your future harvest. Being renewed in your mind by the Holy Spirit to the truths that are yours in Christ begins His work in your heart to “know” the things you have been freely given. 

 

“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength’” (Isaiah 30:15).

 

Working yourself up to “believe” God’s promise yields worry and anxiety. True faith “knows” and produces quietness and confidence. 

 

Do you want to “know” the new creation you are in Christ? Old things have been completely cut away from you. They are dead, and God’s new life has come to life in you. When you “know” what is inside you, it changes you from the inside out.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/faith-is-knowing.html

 

 

This is Abundant Life!

 

 

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

—John 10:10

 

 

If you sow a seed, you reap a plant with more seeds. And if you keep sowing all those seeds, you will reap a harvest. The same is true in the spiritual realm. If you sow the seed of God’s Word, you will reap the harvest of its truth.

 

God’s abundance is in the incorruptible seed of His Word that gave you new life (1 Peter 1:23).

 

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

 

In 2 Corinthians 9:6, Paul applies this same truth to giving: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).

 

Paul presents resources and money as a seed. What does a seed do? It produces a harvest based on the amount of seed sown. And what is the harvest? The harvest is God’s grace “abounding toward you,” giving you sufficiency in all things to do more good works. 

 

Grace is God’s provision for man’s every need—for his spirit, soul, and body. Grace exists for every man to receive through faith, but not everyone walks in His abounding grace. Not all walk in God’s sufficiency or abundance. 

 

What is the reason? Because he who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly. 

 

God’s grace is in the seed we sow. God’s abundance is in the seed. Whatever seeds we sow right now include the abundance of our future harvest. You can sow seeds of forgiveness, compassion, wisdom, time, service, and resources. These seeds are the “fruits of righteousness” from our new birth in Christ.

 

“Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God” (2 Corinthians 9:10-11).

 

The Lord multiplies the seeds we sow and increases the “fruits of our righteousness.” His blessings on the seeds we sow can be realized in many ways. Favor with other people, greater opportunities in ministry and life, the Spirit giving us new ideas, and even unexpected financial blessings can all be part of His harvest. But “sowing seeds” is not a formula. Sowing seeds is a lifestyle. Some harvests don’t take a long time, while others take years. We inherit God’s promises by faith and patience (Hebrews 6:12). In due time, we will reap if we don’t grow weary (Galatians 6:9).

 

Our sowing will become consistent when our giving comes from God “prospering” in us. When we “know” the truth of God’s unconditional love in our hearts, His love abounds in us. The Holy Spirit precedes our flesh saying “no.” The Spirit in us says “yes.” We have compassion for others. We love because God first loved us. We serve because Jesus served us. We give because Jesus gave His life for us. As we spiritually prosper, submitting ourselves to God, we receive more grace. Our giving will grow consistently, and our harvests will become more frequent. All of God’s grace—all of His provision—will abound toward us. God will supply our needs and even more for every good work. God makes “all grace abound toward you” so you may prosper in every good work.

 

“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).

 

The Lord wants you to prosper in all things, just as your soul spiritually prospers. “All” of God’s grace is yours to prosper in “all” things. In health. In your need. In your circumstance. Our lifestyle is to sow seeds and give as we have freely received. We prosper to prosper others. We are blessed to bless others. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:7-9).

 

When we truly “know” the love of God that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, we live to give, and hope for our harvest does not disappoint (Romans 5:5). As we sow seeds of love and compassion, we freely receive. God’s abundance to live and give continues on and on. We have found our identity—our home in God’s heart. This is abundant life! This is true grace!

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/this-is-abundant-life.html

 

 

The Spirit or the Flesh

 

Fruit is nourishing and beneficial, and it tastes good. Paul uses “fruit” to describe the wonderful things the Holy Spirit wishes to produce in us. He writes in Galatians 5:22-23 concerning this fruit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

 

In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul discusses the “works” of the flesh. In stark contrast, in Galatians 5:22-23, he declares the Holy Spirit's desire to produce “fruit” in our lives. The contrast between the flesh and the Spirit is profound. The flesh produces “works.” This is a hard life filled with destructive excesses, idleness, hatred, conflict, bitterness, and recklessness. The flesh demands to be in control. However, a life yielded to the Holy Spirit is filled with spiritual benefits and favor, producing the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The Holy Spirit produces this fruit in us—not us. 

 

The word “fruit” is from the Greek word “karpos,” which describes the fruit of plants or trees or the fruit of the body, such as a person’s children or offspring (New Testament Greek Lexicon).

 

Whether the fruit of a plant or a human, all fruit is produced from some seed. Without a seed, there is no fruit. The kind of seed that is sown determines the fruit that will be produced (Genesis 1:11,12). Grapes only produce grapes, and humans only produce humans. The kind of seed determines the type of fruit.

 

When you received Jesus Christ as your Savior, God sowed the seed of His Spirit and Word into your heart. You were spiritually born again by the incorruptible seed of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). Just like a grape seed only produces grapes, you began to produce God’s nature in you. Since the sown seed determines the kind of fruit produced, you should expect to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. If your life is not producing the fruit of the Spirit, your flesh is in control, and you will reap from what you sow. 

 

A person who plants a grape seed doesn’t question if that seed will become a grapevine. Once that grape seed is in the ground, he can rest assured that, eventually, he will have grapes. The same principle is true in the spiritual realm. You must plant the right seed because seed always produces fruit after its own kind.

 

The fruit that the Holy Spirit produces is godly and overflowing with blessings and life. As you allow the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in you, you will discover that people enjoy your presence. Once they share in God’s fruit flowing out of your life—once they share in His love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, they will desire to experience the Holy Spirit’s wonderful fruit.

 

Since God has sown His Spirit and Word into your heart, you can expect His fruit to be produced in you. However, you make the final decision as to what is produced in your life. You choose who will rule you—the flesh or the Spirit. Don’t yield to the flesh and allow it to produce its horrible work. Instead, yield to the Spirit and allow the seed of God’s Spirit and Word to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life. 

 

Your sinful nature has been crucified with Christ. You have God’s nature within you. You have His righteousness and holiness. You have His love, joy, and peace. You have His goodness, faith, and patience. 

 

Paul wrote in Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” If you sow to the flesh, you reap hatred, greed, dissatisfaction, bitterness, and pride. Sow to the Spirit and reap love, joy, peace, patience, and all His luscious fruit. 

 

Do you want to walk in the hard and bitter works of the flesh? Or would you rather humble yourself and allow the Holy Spirit to produce His wonderful fruit in you? 

 

Which are you going to choose—the Spirit or the flesh?

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/the-spirit-or-flesh.html

 

Don’t Complain, Impart Grace

 

 

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

—Ephesians 4:29

 

 

Does complaining do you any good? Does it produce life, joy, and peace? As murmuring was for the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years, complaining appears to be the norm for many people. 

 

Complaining, while it may make us feel justified, is a destructive force. It harms us and our relationships. The attitude of “they are wrong, and I am right” leads many people to complain about their marriage, relationships, family, finances, church, and anything that does not agree with their opinion. 

 

How do you react to a person who says or does something that disagrees with your opinion? 

 

Everything the Lord has to say in His Word about complaining is negative. When the Israelites complained, God was displeased and angry (Numbers 11:1). They were His children who complained from a lack of belief in His guidance and provision. They didn’t trust in Him. 

 

Complaining is simply a symptom of unbelief. 

 

We complain when we lack trust in God and His Word, and complaining indicates the lack of trust we have in our hearts. When we murmur and complain about our fellow believers, we “accuse the brethren.” The devil is the “accuser of the brethren.” Do we want to be his instrument? A critical and complaining heart also keeps us from the promises of God. Look at the Israelites who complained and wandered in the desert for forty years. It should have taken eleven days to reach the Promised Land.

 

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35).

The “treasure” of a complaining heart is evil.  

 

Real faith in God and words spoken out of the “good treasure” of faith are life-giving, enriching, and encouraging. Real faith flows from absolute peace with God and unconditional trust in His goodness. It empowers our choice to walk in the Spirit instead of our flesh. When God is the source of our life, we can have peace regardless of the world’s craziness. Jesus calls us to be salt and light, not bitter and irate. The joy of the Lord is our strength. There is no lasting joy in the heart of a criticizing, murmuring complainer.

 

If you are tired of wandering around in the dryness of your desert, stop complaining! Trust in the Lord, give Him thanks and speak words of life and peace! We will never agree on everything, but we can agree that God is good and reveals His goodness through us! Don’t throw away good years wandering in misery! Do you want to bring forth good things out of the treasure of Jesus in your heart? Don’t murmur and complain. Build others up. Speak His best into their lives. You not only encourage others. You also encourage your faith. Eleven days is much better than forty years.

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/07/dont-complain-impart-grace.html