Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
An increased sense of gratitude is a good remedy for the inclination to complain. All of us kn‘ow very well that we have a great deal to be grateful for. We were like prisoners held and condemned to die but then we had someone else taken our place at the execution. Someone was willing to be the substitute for us.. .Someone was willing to take all of the suffering that was due to us.
We were guilty but the one who suffered instead, was innocent. It was the occasion of‘ ‘the righteous for the unrighteous”...to bring us to God” (1 .Peter 3:18). So he who has no sin, stood in the place of our sin. “By His wounds we are healed’’ (Isaiah 53:5 & 1 Peter 2:24).
All of us want to do more things that help In God's purpose for His church. We don' t want to do things that hinder. In todays text, complaining or grumbling Is mentioned together with arguing. Probably because arguing is what complaining often leads to. Then, in turn arguing often leads on to division... the very last thing that Christ wants for the church. So let's heed what the text tells us and avoid complaining and try instead to measure the things we say and the words we use to make sure that we don't discourage a soul for whom Jesus died.
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
We spend so much time worrying about those things over which we have little or no control and so little time doing things that we can do to insure the future. We have no control over the length of life, but we have tremendous opportunities to provide for the quality of our lives.
In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey gives a good illustration of this in terms of the Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence. Your Circle of Concern are things or areas in life where you'll tend to worry about but have 'no real control' over e.g. ill health; while those things or areas you can work on e.g. habits, are in your Circle of Influence. Worry overwhelms us when we channel our time and energy to things in our Circle of Concern instead of things in our Circle of Influence. Jesus asked “who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matt. 6:27).
His conclusion is “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6: 34). Still we continue to allow the anxieties of those things we cannot control to draw from us the energy we need to enjoy the productive life we could have. To improve the quality of our lives, we need to always take things in our Circle of Concern to the Lord; casting all our anxieties on him, because He cares for us; and this is one thing (casting all our anxieties on the Lord) in our Circle of Influence we can all learn to start with!
