I did a lot of complaining yesterday. I could blame the cold, or lack of sleep, or a host of other inconveniences, but when it comes right down to it, grumbling is sinful. Philippians 2 says, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe . . . .”
Before I opened my devotional book this morning, I asked the Lord to speak to that, to give me something that would help me stop it. I’m sick of it. I can imagine my family has had more than enough, and certainly God would rather hear me giving thanks.
This is what He said: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with (rendered useless), that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”
Christ died and rose again to give me new life—and the power to offer my mouth to Him. God put me ‘in Christ’ so that when He died, I did too. Death is separation, cessation of the ability to live. When I ‘died’ that old life of sin was put away, rendered impotent. My question is, what is going on then, when that old, dead thing starts whining, complaining or even worse?
I grew up on a farm. Every fall we killed a batch of chickens for the deep freeze. Their heads were chopped off and they were dead, but, for several awful minutes, their bodies didn’t seem to know it. They flopped around, and sometimes ran a few feet in several directions. It was awful.
This section of Scripture seems to describe that. My old nature is in the death throws of a beheaded chicken. It is dead. I need to consider it dead, even though it often acts as if it is alive. This is also awful.
God is reminding me that I have all I need in the new life He has given me, and that I have a choice to make. Instead of offering my mouth to a beheaded chicken who somehow manages to squawk and bellyache, I’m to offer my entire self to Him, so that what comes out of my mouth is not “unwholesome” “but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).
As it write this, I feel a strong urge to find a photo of a beheaded chicken (ugh) and stick it where I will often see it, just to remind me to quit being one.
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