Author: marquitabp

The Product of Complaining

 

 "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon–from Mount Mizar."  Psalm 42:5-6

 

There are three occurrences of the same wording above in Psalms…kinda ironic right?  Read what it says about complaining ad feeling sorry for yourself!

 

Okay, when I was little, I loved growing things.  Any flower, plant, vegetable, you name it, I probably tried to grow it.  See, I love trying new things and mastering them.  Actually, I would love to have a little garden/planter box out here except I have birds, cats, and jumbo country spiders to get angry about.  So anyway, one time, I had some cucumber seeds.  I planted them and pretty much left them alone.  I complained that they were not growing and maybe were just duds.  Before I knew it, I had baby cucumbers growing and starting to get big.  Then one day I noticed a big chunk was missing out of one of em–I think I had three–and holes in the other ones.  Moral:  quit complaining!  Everything takes time.  Nothing is overnight, except weeds.  And you don't want weeds growing up in your garden. 

 

Like in the Parable of the Planter, the seeds that fell among weeds choked.  When we complain, we choke ourselves.  Of course not literally people.  But of course everything that is literal can manifest itself in the physical.  We miss out on the opportunity to grow and exercise our faith by complaining.  We miss out on the chance to look at the situation from another perspective and try again.  We miss out on the chance just look and see what God protected us from!  I looked up synonyms of complain–and there were over 50 words that meant the same thing!  That's a shame, that the English language promotes complaining rather than finding a way out of the situation.  Its terrible that people always find the negative in a situation rather than look on the bright side–most obviously the fact that you are still alive to live another day and figure out how to get past whatever is troubling you.  I wish I could do a study to prove that people with negative dispositions are more likely to have more pain and suffer more.  I have a living example…   I proved the opposite–I and the positive lights in my life believed that I would recover miraculously and I did just that.  My brother's kidney started making urine within the hour of being put in my body!  That and of course speaking the word of God over both of us…in fact I remind myself how God has made a way in many impossible situations as a constant reminder that the bad is only temporary and what my eternal promise provides…you should try it!  Try to be content in spite, be happy because that is something you choose to do!  You can choose to complain, and plant those seeds and see what you reap!

"The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him." Lamentations 3:24

Be Careful What You Ask For

 

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  Mark 11:24

 

I just wrote something that really made me think.  I said–quoting myself haha–"I now realize if you beg God for something hard enough, He will give it to you but sometimes things are much harder and teach you those critical lessons."  I expand that to say, sometimes we ask for stuff we weren't meant to have, because we really think we need them and God fulfills His promise to provide our needs.

 

I do not believe I was supposed to come back to Charleston–but because we have the free will to choose, and mouths to pray, we sometimes get things that God will work out for our good. (Romans 8:28)  See, I have gone through a great deal of difficulties–COUNTLESS attacks against my health, my body, my spirit, my mind, and my faith.  Now that goes without saying that had I gone to California instead, I would not have undergone some great challenges there to get me to this same central point–going about life His way, walking in His will, yielding to His voice.  Because we are told in my verse–one of my favorites :D, that God will work together all things for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.  I believe that if I had chosen Tampa, New Orleans, Norfolk, Timbuktu, or San Diego–my original destination, that God would have made me see it His way regardless.  But I say be careful what you ask for because in all of this, I have asked for  Patience, Strength, Endurance, Favor, Guidance, Direction, Wisdom and His Love among other things.  To get Patience, I have had to wait for a job to come through so that I can move away and I had to realize, truly realize God's purpose for me here, and in life, in the process.  For Strength and Endurance I have had to have strength for everyone else, including myself through illness, pain, heartache, and death, and I have had to endure less than favorable circumstances at work and in other situations to realize that God can carry it all.(1 Peter 5:7)  For running my big mouth some more lol and asking for Guidance and Direction, I had to obey when no one else's advice made sense, when no one could help me, and the only voice that was clear was His.  For Wisdom!!!  I can't even EXPLAIN!  Because sometimes I don't know where these devotions come from!  Somebody could say something, just one thing and I write.  I may say one thing and I write.  And praying for God's love—and this is ongoing—to love yourself when you never knew how, to love others when you didn't love yourself….

 

"But you, man of God, must flee from all these things. Instead, you must pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, endurance, and gentleness."  1 Timothy 6:11

 

Be careful what you ask for!  Because God does hold true to His promises!  Good night!