Surrender

I complain.

Really.  It's a problem.

I complain when my kids don't load their dishes into the dishwasher.  I complain when they load them into the dishwasher but don't do it with the Tetris-like exactness that I require.  I complain that something is wrong with the scale when it shows me numbers I don't like.  I complain when I am dieting so I can like those numbers better. I complain when I have to do burpees at boot camp.  I complain when I sleep in and miss boot camp.  I complain about my job.  I complained about not having a job before I had one.

Seriously.  Can I not be content?

I can, but I have to choose it.  And to choose contentment, I have to forget myself. And live as Jesus lived,
Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Phil 2:6-8)

I complain because I think too much of myself.  But Jesus didn't do this; even though He was God, he choose to live in the skin of a man and be a servant to those who rejected Him.  He was silent when He could have been defensive.  He was soft when he could have been harsh.  He was obedient when it wasn't appealing.  He choose death so we could live.

Jesus had every right to complain that this world was full of darkness, that these people were ungrateful, that these religious folk wrongly portrayed Him, that He had to do what was hard.

But He didn't complain because He was confident in God's will for His life.  He didn't complain because The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1:3).  God doesn't complain, thus Jesus is a non-complainer; He is an exact representation of His Father.  I, too, am supposed to be a representation of my Father, so why am I complaining?  Because I haven't fully surrendered my will to Him.  Because sometimes I think my life is too hard.  Because I am lazy and habits are hard to change.

So, what will I do about my complaining habit?  

1.  I will purpose to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5)

2.  I will remember that I am to be about God's glory and not my own because He must become greater; I must become less (John 3:30).

3.  I will memorize verses like this to help me:  Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation (Phil. 2:14-15)

4.  And I will recall Who I am to be reflecting; We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).

Any maybe, by God's grace and with His help (and yours, please ask me how I'm doing), I will be non-complainer by February 2015 and a more accurate picture of my Father.  

It's a choice.

I surrender.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. 

1 Timothy 6:6