I woke up this morning as I do every Tuesday to go pray with a young man from my church but today he was unable to make it because of a work situation.  After my quiet time and getting a little work done I sat down to look at Facebook.  I began to notice that not much has changed in the lives of many people.  Same situations, same types of post day in and day out.  Everything from cute pics of babies and children (my wife has that type of post nailed down) to scripture verses.  Oh, lets not forget the best post the never-ceasing complaints post.

I cannot for the life of me understand why people are so willing to air the complaints about life for all the world to see.  I know they are looking for sympathy and to some degree I can appreciate that aspect of it.  The difficult thing for me, as I read them, is seeing that many of the things that are being complained about are self-inflicted.  The hard thing about being so involved with people is seeing them make the same mistakes over and over, suffer the same consequences, and continue doing the same things without any true understanding of what needs to be changed.

A person cannot live in total disregard to directions of God from His Word and expect life to be good.  One complaint that occurs every week has to do with it being Monday.   Late Sunday evening it begins.  “Ugh tomorrow is Monday!” It continues as the sun is dawning.  “I can already tell what kind of day this is going to be!”  When Monday evening rolls around you hear, “I am glad this day is over cannot wait till the weekend is here!”  Perhaps all this would change if people would do and say as the Psalmist said when he said, “This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Life will never be filled with joy if the mouth is filled with complaints.

Many try to fix their own situations but continue doing the same thing over and over again because they cannot see what is really happening.  Or at least they cannot see why it is happening.  A person cannot complain and expect anything to change if they are unwilling to do what has been revealed to them through God’s word or God’s people.  One cannot complain about their work situation if they are not following God’s directions concerning work.  He, that is God, has given us clear instructions.  People often are in the place of complaint because of the refusal to seek God for directions.

This refusal leads to a place of doomed repetition.  So expect to be struggling today with the same things you struggled with last year.

It can all change!  The complaints can turn to rejoicing.  This will happen if there is a genuine surrender to be obedient to God’s Word.  Notice how to have genuine surrender to God’s Word:

1. Stop trusting in your own words.  In other words, stop trying to rationalize your reasons for why you are doing what you are doing.
2. Stop trusting in your own works.   Remember it was your actions that brought you to the place of complaints to begin with.
3. Start trusting in God’s Words.  What He says is best, it is the way of life.  Remember His Word brought all creation into existence and “…it was good.”
4. Start trusting in God’s works.  What He is trying to accomplish is for your good.  He has only plans that are good for you but you will have to do His plans and not your own.

When you have trusted that is when you will find joy.  Joy will give you strength and strength will give you power to do all that He has called you to do.  You do not have to be doomed to repeat!  You can be blessed to experience!