This is part two of the blog post I wrote earlier this week, “Complain To God.” In that post I encouraged people to bring their complaints to God since a lot of men and women in the Bible complained to God and were heard. Complaining is discouraged in our society today. It’s looked upon very negatively. But in truth if we were to look at the reason why America became one of the greatest nations on earth, it’s roots can be found from people who weren’t satisfied with their environment and wanted to improve it. They wanted to stop complaining and did something about it. So, if you have a lot of things that you are unhappy and complaining about and want to do something about it, begin with God. God will help you. He loves you and wants you to complain to Him so you will turn around and thank Him and love Him. As I said in my previous post, we can’t always feel like being thankful. But when we’re feeling unhappy and unthankful, who is going to help us turn around and feel happy and thankful again? No one else can do a better job in making us happy than God. Especially because not only can He do anything, but He loves us so much. He wants to see us happy and thankful. He will help us be thankful and happy again.
The key thing I’m experiencing in my relationship with the Lord and in my practice of complaining to Him, is that you definitely have to have an open relationship with Him. You can’t really complain to someone who doesn’t know you and you don’t really know back. You have to have a relationship with them. It’s like with our parents, we have a relationship with them and they with us. They know us and we know them. We have no problem complaining to them. It’s the same thing with God. This relationship happens when we’re daily talking to Him, committing every issue in our lives to Him. And when we’re open to Him, we are open to His suggestions or His nudging in our spirit to do what He says to do. He will help us what to say to Him – what to pray for. At first we will start out complaining to Him and telling Him the things that make us unhappy, but eventually the Holy Spirit is going to nudge us to love Him next. He’s going to want us to acknowledge His goodness in our lives. He’s going to want us to change our focus on what we’re complaining about to what we can be thankful for. He will help us to do it too if we take Him up on it. Part of a productive complaining to God is being open to His dealings with us in our spirit, and obeying what He’s showing us to do. That way whatever it is we’re unhappy about He will work out for us. I know because I have experienced this time and time again. I will start out sometimes venting to Him about what’s eating me up and bugging me, but then turn around and feel like saying to Him, “But I love You, Jesus, because You are so good and so sweet to my soul. Thank You with all of my heart for Your grace and Your love for me.” That’s the Holy Ghost speaking into my heart and telling me what to do. This is what the scripture means when it said that the Holy Ghost will help us with what to pray for or what to say to God. That also is in essence what King David did in Psalm 59. He started out complaining to God and telling Him about his dismay and fears concerning his enemies, but then he turns around and lifts God up. He says to the Lord,
But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy. {Psalm 59:16-17}
David has experienced time and time again that God comes to his rescue. Whenever he calls on God to save him and makes his troubles known to the Lord, the Lord saves him. So he can easily say these words of praise to the Lord,
“…yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble.”
It’s not that hard at all to praise or thank God. If you have learned to bring your troubles to Him and you have learned that He comes through for you, it’s easy to turn around and tell God how wonderful He is. It’s easy to tell Him you love Him.
Another thing you want to do in the process of your complaining and making your troubles known to the Lord is to tell Him what you want to happen. King David did this in this chapter 59 of Psalms. He told the Lord like it is. He said to Him:
Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah. And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied. {Psalm 59:13-15}
Sure, this might sound like a pretty cruel prayer about his enemies, but keep in mind they’re after him to kill him. They were a group of merciless people. According to history this was written during the time of king Saul when Saul was hounding David like a dog and wanted to kill him. There were men left and right who wanted to destroy David to make Saul happy. It was indeed a pretty miserable time for David. But because he had a wonderful relationship with God, a very open one at that, he wasn’t afraid to tell God exactly how he felt about his enemies. I mean, think about it, why would you want to hide your true feelings to the Lord when He knows everything that is in your heart already? You’re only doing yourself a disfavor by doing that. You’re not pleasing God at all by pretending to be kind and merciful, when what you really feel in your heart is anger toward those that hurt you. The Lord knows your feelings so you might as well tell Him. Hiding it from Him who knows everything is like saying you don’t trust Him enough to understand you. Leave it to the Lord to do what He sees fit to do regarding your prayer. Don’t worry about that. But by all means tell the Lord how you feel and be honest about it to Him. The Lord loves you so much. He doesn’t want you hiding anything from Him because through your open heart and communication with Him He can help you. He can enter in your process of conversation with Him and say something back to you. He can guide you and whisper to you what you should feel and think. Before you know it you’ll be hearing His assurances of love for you and how He will work things out for you, because He loves it when we’re honest with Him. It doesn’t displease Him at all. If you keep it all to yourself then He will not be able to help you as much as He could when you’re out and open with Him.
Don’t be afraid to talk to the Lord and complain to Him as much as you need to about what’s making you unhappy. Don’t be afraid to tell on people too if they’re hurting you and making you unhappy. We see already how King David did this. In my previous post you will see Moses telling on those who were making him unhappy. He complained to the Lord about what he was going through with the children of Israel. He told the Lord carrying the burden of the children of Israel was too much for him. And the Lord did not condemn him. He did not get angry with Moses because he was honest to the Lord about his true feelings. As a matter of fact, the Lord listened to Moses and turned around and did something about it, and alleviated Moses’ burdens. He had Moses gather 70 elders and presented them to the Lord, and the Lord gave some of the Spirit He had given Moses to them. From then on they helped Moses in dealing with the children of Israel. Just as Jesus Christ said to us in His word,
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. {Matthew 7:7-8}
We are His children and He is our Father. If we have no qualms about complaining to our parents why should we have any reservations to complain to God? He loves us more than our parents or anyone else we could ever know or meet in this life. No one else can understand us either better than Him. The Lord is a very good God and a very merciful God. His desire is to see us happy. The only thing He is asking for from us is for us to be honest and open with Him: tell Him what we’re unhappy about, be open to His dealings with us in our spirit, and love Him in the process. Then when He’s worked things out for us, remember to thank Him and love Him even more. This way we can go deeper in our relationship with him and become more and more confident in making our complaints known to Him.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. {Hebrews 4:16}
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. {Jeremiah 33:3}
Prayer
Father, I thank You for Your awesome love upon Your people today. I know that Your love is true and doesn’t hinge on our goodness or how wonderful we’ve been behaving lately. I thank You that an open and honest heart is the thing you are looking for from us. A simple, “I am sorry” or “I love You, Lord” melts Your heart because You are a God who is full of goodness and mercy, who loves us so much. Thank You, Father for who You are and how great You are.
Lord Jesus, I pray Savior, that You would please give us the boldness and the courage and the faith in our hearts to be honest and open with You. You already know everything in our hearts, there is nothing we need to hide from You. Please Father, help us to come to You and tell You our fears and our sorrow, tell You our longings and our desires. Whatever it is we’re unhappy about in our lives or whatever we’re complaining about to tell You. There is nothing You will not do for us if we just but wait on You and love You in the process. I ask for more faith in Your people’s hearts today to come to You and be themselves to You with their requests today, I pray this Father in Your most lovely and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
