Stop that whining!

My husband sometimes plays golf with a man who whines about everything. At first it was amusing, but DH soon learned how to gently remind the fellow to be thankful, to be glad that he is still on the right side of the grass.

Being thankful helps me to stop whining too. God is taking care of me so I dare not complain that He isn’t doing a good job. However, there is another way to deal with the things in life that can rob me of enjoyment. It is found in these four verses:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29)

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6)

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. (Isaiah 40:29)

Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

The first way to stop grumbling is by remembering to share my yoke with Jesus. Whatever load God puts on me, we are pulling it together. I can watch my divine Teammate and see His gentleness and humility as He pulls. In Him, I find rest for my soul, a kind of rest that totally overwhelms any kind of fatigue or reason to complain.

Second, if I am whining because God is chastening me, I can take joy in the fact that He does it because He loves me. We might sing “just as I am” — which is true — this is how God loves me, but I should be glad that He also loves me too much to leave me that way. I can be joyful in chastening for this means that I am being transformed into the image of Christ. That is glory for me!

Third, when I am exhausted, I can whine or depend on Him to renew my strength. Fatigue might drive me to a power nap, to eating chocolate, or even to grumbling, but it should drive me to Him. He promises to increase my strength. He might use sleep, or food, but never whining.

Fourth, Nehemiah speaks to the people who were grieving over their sin. I do that, sometimes to the point of beating myself up. But this man told God’s people to carry on with life now that they had confessed and repented. They should stop grieving and allow the joy of the Lord to fill their hearts. That joy would give them the emotional strength to continue walking with Him.

Again, whining never fixes anything. It only puts my focus on me, poor me, and totally annoys those who hear it. Unless I choose to turn it into prayer and seek God, He isn’t listening either.

Chambers says: “If you have the whine in you, kick it out ruthlessly. It is a positive crime to be weak in God’s strength.”

I say, “Amen!”

God’s love is not always a warm fuzzy

1 Kings 11:9–12:33, Mark 7:14–8:10, Proverbs 3:6–3:12, Hebrews 12:6

When I turned my PC on this morning, both of my monitors showed snow and crazy patterns. I figured the main one had failed, so unhooked it and re-connected the secondary monitor as main. That worked, but this episode was like a bolt out of the blue. It’s never happened in forty years of using a computer.

Today’s Scriptures seemed a bit like a bolt from the blue also. I’ve read them before, many times, but this time God gave me eyes to see a little deeper into His power. If He wants to do something, He will. He can protect; He can destroy. He can also chasten His people for sin or selfishness using severe measures. Some of us might think that is not an expression of His love, but is that true?

Consider Solomon. He started out well, but “his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.’” (1 Kings 11:9–13)

God had given him two warnings before taking away Solomon’s role and giving it to another. He was merciful only in that it happened to his son and not to him personally. God wanted to spare Solomon from even the horror of living out his life knowing that what he had done would ruin the life of his child.

And that child’s life was ruined. Solomon’s son Rehoboam lost most of the kingdom to a man called Jeroboam. He tried to get it back, but one of God’s prophets said to him: “Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel. Every man return to his home, for this thing is from me.” (1 Kings 12:21–24) Another horror: the son had to accept his losses, and even accept that this was the will of God.

Solomon wrote this: “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:11–12) Was he referring to Rehoboam? Perhaps, but these verses certainly speak to me. I have been tired of God’s reproof. I’ve also forgotten that He disciplines me because He loves me. I find it far easier to suppose that He is inflicting me in anger.

Today, the NT is not directly about God’s chastening, but about the reason it is needed. Jesus knows that we tend to think that sin is the result of a reaction to life’s circumstances. He uses food to illustrate the principle: “. . . Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) What comes at me from the world, or even from the devil, is not the reason that I sin.

Jesus explains it this way: “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:18–23)

My problems with sin are not from the world and the devil, but from that sinful nature — and I’m so prone to feed it with the junk the world offers and the devil put on my plate. It that nature did not respond (and it should not for it died with Christ), then I would not care about temptation or respond to it.

Jesus also hints at the huge reason why discipline is so unwelcome. I tend to want Him to remove the problem, whether it’s a buffet of fattening food, or a disagreeable co-worker, or a tempting relationship, or an aching foot. If those things were gone, then my sinful responses would not happen. But Jesus says those responses are from the heart, not from what is outside of me. I cannot put twenty-five miles between me and the nearest sin. I take it with me wherever I go, and if God does not discipline it out of me, that sin will ruin my life.

“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” (Hebrews 12:6)

I’ve pushed God away when I want to have my own way. He warns me and pushes back. He isn’t being mean to me. He knows that if I do what sin want to do, it will lead to discomfort or worse. His discipline is to save me from myself — and He does it because He loves me.

An open-door policy

If I sin, particularly repeatedly with a specific sin, and get away with it without any sense of rebuke or remorse, then I’ve good reason to suspect that I might not be a genuine Christian.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. (Hebrews 12:6)

My tendency is to apply this verse to someone else, to the people I know who claim to belong to God, but who live as if He does not exist. How can they be part of His family if He never scolds them for their disobedience? 

Yet I cannot legitimately do that. For one reason, how can I know if God is speaking to another person about their sin? Sometimes He speaks to me and there is no visible response or reaction. How then can I know what is going on in the hearts of others? While there may be clues, the best attitude is that I apply verses like this to myself. 

Another passage says the same thing. This one is obviously for believers, yet part of it often is misapplied to those who do not know God.

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 3:19–22)

The image of Jesus knocking at the door of someone’s heart is used in salvation messages, but the source of this image is Jesus knocking and seeking admission into the lives of those who are in the church. We sin and need to repent. Instead of having close fellowship with God, our relationship with Him is marred by our lack of zeal to change our ways. It is these that God reproves and disciplines. It is to His own that He gives such attention and the invitation to let Him back into our lives.

In the big picture, the New Testament indicates that if believers have their lives in order, God uses us to reach those outside His family. In history, revival in the church precedes revival in the community. Those God loves, those who are already His children, are the first to be corrected. He wants His family life in order. This means that my interaction with Him and with other believers is to be pure and true. When our fellowship is sweet, I reign with Him, conquer sin with Him, and sit in heavenly places with Him. When I act like Jesus Christ, I am living out my sonship and demonstrating that I am a child of God. 

Yet none of this can happen without His rebuke and chastening. No one can discipline themselves into godliness. Our best efforts apart from Christ simply fail. Actually, without Christ my efforts are almost non-existent and certainly made with selfish motives. Being godly isn’t appealing because being godly requires saying no to me, myself and I. Apart from Christ, this holds no appeal.

Chastening can be a mild thing, like an elbow in the ribs. If I don’t listen, it can become stronger, more like a hit with a two by four. Sometimes God uses adverse circumstances to get my attention, or the words or the life of someone else. Or He might use consequences. Whatever the tool, the Holy Spirit is always involved and I become aware that He is knocking. I also become aware that I am missing that fellowship described by eating a meal with Him. When these things happen, there is only one cure.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

God makes my part easy. When I do it, He does the rest. Confession is opening the door and letting Him come in.

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Lord, when my fellowship with You is sweet and complete, I cannot imagine why I would push You away by wanting my own way and doing my own thing. Nothing makes less sense. Sin is never been rational, yet selfishness, when indulged, has its allure. In this life, the battle will continue. My biggest need at the moment is remembering to apply these verses about chastening to myself and not use them to judge others or to determine who is Your child and who is not. The important thing is that I keep short accounts with You, and by so doing, keep that door wide open.

(Image source)