Complaining And Praying

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Now with extremely limited availability, contact your local retailer for inventory information. Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show. Stories of hopelessness turned into hope. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything.

On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. So, James, you're just telling me that your day got off to a fun start?

Yeah, I guess you could put it that way, Robbie, or you could say it didn't. Yeah, James was out of town yesterday helping his daughter with car problems. And the way the day began this morning was that his daughter called and said that her car wouldn't start, which I kind of resemble that remark. Yeah, so it was the second morning in a row, you know.

And right now I'm out of town, a couple hours away from her, and it's so frustrating when you want to help someone you love and you can't get there to do it. But this is actually a great lead-in for our topic today. And that is how prayer can help us with complaining. And if you're not actively complaining about something, it can become this attitude, right, where we're just expecting things to go wrong and living with an outlook that is negative, and negative really about just everything. Yeah, yeah, we can fall into that.

I know I do sometimes. And I think as we begin this topic, it's important to point out that complaining is allowed when we pray. Think of how Israel grumbled before God after he brought them out of Egypt, and he wasn't happy with that. So this kind of complaining that Philippians talks about, again, like you were saying, it can be a bad attitude, holding a grudge, murmuring, you know, kind of holding a grudge against life, if you will. And we're not supposed to be like that. Yeah, so let's talk about the difference, you know, prayer can make when we fall into this. You know, for me, the first thing that comes to mind where prayer is that could really help and, you know, just starting out by praising God for everything that he is, and really every good thing that we do have in our lives. Yeah, I think that's an absolutely vital place to begin, Robby, because the problem when we're complaining is that we're all wrapped up in ourselves. And, you know, how things aren't working out. And if you think about it, that's just so much a part of what is happening in the world around us today.

Just turn on the cable news networks. And no matter what perspective they may be coming from politically, there's this mentality that says, I'm a victim. You know, but what God's word tells us is so different. It tells us that if we know him, if we've been freed from our sins, and at the Spirit of God living within us, that we have eternal hope. And we have to lift our eyes there because that really is something to praise God for. Oh, that's so true. And I like the old saying about you've quit preaching now and started meddling, James. I mean, this is personal.

I know, I know. Because if we really admit it, there's something we like about complaining. And that sounds funny, but think about it long enough. And it really can be true because it's a way of exercising control about things. And I think this is where we need to go to God. Maybe to ask him, why am I like this?

Why can't I stop doing this? It takes a conscientious effort to move beyond this, but he will help us. His Spirit will help us if we let him into what's going on.

Think about what his word tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5 18. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. That's what he wants us to be like, to be thankful. And it's difficult to be thankful and to complain at the same time. But I can find a way. I promise you this.

I know, right? We really do have to laugh at ourselves a bit, but I think about what I think about. One of my favorite quotes from G.K. Chesterton, angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. I mean, if we're ever going to get over this rise above it, if you will, we have to be able to admit we need God's help and we have to ask his forgiveness when we're sinning with this. And let's face it, it can easily become a sinful pattern in our lives. If it's that grumbling, you know, that kind of wilderness grumbling, if you will. And we can let him lift us out of it.

But what if I don't want to? That's just the thing. You nailed it. We camp out here and we make ourselves absolutely miserable. God has better things in store for us. He wants us to see things differently, to live with his hope and joy and thankfulness. Oh, you're so right. I mean, this goes so deep that, you know, we can feel like others are meddling with us when they bring it up, but we can get defensive and think about all the reasons we have for complaining. And some of them may be legitimate and feel like, you know, no one understands. Yeah, I'm glad you bring that up, because this is again where we have to go to God. We can bring our legitimate complaints before him. We're allowed to do that, just as we saw in the Psalms.

And that's the beautiful thing. But he will help us through his spirit. He will encourage us and remind us whether it's legitimate or not. We just take the whole to him and he will help us be thankful in him. And the crazy and ironic thing is that he can do that in the most difficult places. I know that's been the case in my life.

Oh, yeah, I've seen that, too. So whether our complaints are well-grounded or even if they're not right, he still wants us to come to him. And as we do, he'll work things out. We just have to take that step. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. So, Robbie, let's go there now. Would you would you close today by praying about this for all of us? Oh, thank you, yes.

Let's do it. Jesus, thank you that we can come to you because we really don't understand our own attitude at times and you understand it. And, Lord, help us to to just take ourselves so lightly that say, Lord, I don't understand why my attitude so bad or I don't feel this way. And, Lord, I know you can show us and I pray that that I'll remember this the next time that I feel that and that the first place I go is to you for help.

So I can take care of myself lightly and we all will. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.