Stop Complaining About Your Life
It seems like a harmless practice. We mumble and complain about the things that bother us as we go through our days. But complaining is not as harmless as it may seem so stop complaining about your life.
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Why You Should Stop Complaining About Your Life
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The enemy is always trying to get you. He wants you to be discontented and dissatisfied. He wants you to be unhappy with your life because he knows it can rob us of our joy. Here are some of the things that can happen when we keep complaining about our lives:
- Depression–focusing on the things we are dissatisfied with causes us to lose focus of the many benefits and blessings we have in our lives.
- Poor sleep patterns–we don’t sleep as well as we ought to when we’re always complaining about something.
- Isolation and loneliness–constant complaining can push people away–no one wants to be around someone who’s grumpy or complains all the time.
- Complaining leads to ingratitude–complaining robs us of our gratitude attitude. When we’re complaining we’re not praising God or giving Him the glory for all the many wonderful things He’s done.
What Are You Complaining About?
Most of us complain about something. What are you complaining about? Is it your job? The car you drive? Do you long for more than you currently have?
Complaining is one of those things that can rob us of our gratitude attitude. Click the image to watch the video on YouTube.
A Lesson on Complaining from the Children of Israel
The Israelites were master complainers. They were always disgruntled about something–especially when they were in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land. It seemed the minute they had been delivered from a particular thing, they found something else to grumble about. Let’s look at one notable example in Numbers 16:41-50:
On the next day, all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” Now it happened, when the congregation had gathered against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tabernacle of meeting; and suddenly the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. Then Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of meeting.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.”
And they fell on their faces.
So Moses said to Aaron, “Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun.” Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people.
So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died in the Korah incident. So Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, for the plague had stopped (Numbers 16:41-50 NKJV).
I always find this passage of Scripture ironic. The Israelites accused Moses of killing God’s people. Because they angered God, thousands of them died. Yet I’m sure if you asked the survivors what had happened, they probably wouldn’t have realized that they caused their own destruction.
How to Stop Complaining About Your Life
The secret to not complaining is to shift your focus. Too often we focus on the things we can’t control and that are not to our liking. It’s at these moments that we start to murmur and mumble.
If you want to stop complaining about your life, focus on what you have instead of what you don’t have. Oh, I can’t promise that you won’t ever find your thoughts wandering down a negative path, but when you do, shift your focus.
The Bible tells us that we should capture every thought (2 Corinthians 10:5)–that’s because sometimes our thought life is really negative and needs to be dealt with.
There’s a reason the songwriter told us to count our blessings, it’s because we have a tendency to downplay them. We tend to focus more on what we don’t have until it becomes huge in our heads. That’s what happened to Eve in the garden and what happens to us when we don’t carefully guard our thoughts.
Are you guilty of complaining? How has it affected your gratitude attitude?
This post and video were inspired by the book How to Find Your Gratitude Attitude which is now available on Amazon in digital and print format. Purchase your copy today.
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