Okay, So Complaining is Sinful. But What if Something Really Bad Happens?
God's plan can't be shaken. He has good things for us. Nothing can separate us from his love.
Recently I wrote about my tendency to complain, and how I have absolutely no reason to.
“I have a nice place to live, a great job, a husband who loves me, a child on the way, a family I love and see often, a free country in which to live and worship without fear,” I wrote then. “So I have nothing to complain about.”
This statement is true. Especially when I compare my circumstances to others’.
But even if God took away all those earthly blessings, I still wouldn’t have reason to complain. He’s already given me everything in himself. And he promises that “for those who love God all things work together for good.”
Faith After Tragedy
This concept is hard to stomach. It’s unpleasant to imagine losing the material things that make life comfortable — home, money, freedom. It’s devastating to imagine losing loved ones.
Recently I’ve been thinking about Tia Coleman, the woman who lost nine family members, her husband and kids included, in the Missouri duck boat tragedy.
In a press conference, she expressed continued faith in God’s plan, despite her pain. “God must have something for me because there’s no way I should be here,” she said.
If I were to experience a similar fate, could I remain as confident in God’s plan for my life as Coleman? Would anyone really expect me to not complain?
“Blessed Be the Name of the Lord”
Another person who seemingly had every reason to complain was Job. He served God faithfully, yet God allowed Satan to destroy the entirety of his possessions, kill his children, and afflict him with sickness.
Amazingly, Job’s initial response is not to complain: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)
His righteous attitude does eventually waver, but by the end of the book, he repents and acknowledges once again that God is in control: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2)
Even if God took away all my earthly blessings, I still wouldn’t have reason to complain. He’s already given me everything in himself. And he promises that “for those who love God all things work together for good.”
This truth echoes throughout the Bible. In Jeremiah 29:11 we’re told, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
In Romans 8:31-32 Paul writes, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
And a few verses later: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It Is Well
As these passages of Scripture remind us, God’s plan can’t be shaken. He has good things for us. Nothing can separate us from his love. Why, then, does bad stuff happen to faithful people like Job? Like Tia Coleman?
Explaining the lessons found in Job, theologian John Piper said this in 2008:
1) … God is sovereign over all our suffering; 2) he permits Satan to come into our lives and do horrible things to us; 3) he means to prove our faith and purify our lives through it; 4) in the end he will make it good, either in this life or in the life to come; and 5) Satan does not have the last word in the lives of God’s people.
That’s it. Satan does not have the last word. He does nothing that God doesn’t specifically allow. And God allows nothing to happen in vain. We can have faith that he will make it right in the end, and that nothing — not even the worst things — can separate us from him.
So if everything I fear becomes reality, I still have no reason to complain. God’s in control, he will never leave me, and he’s working it out for my good. Ultimately, that’s all that matters.
God, even when trials come, help me not to complain. Remind me that I have no reason to, because you still love me, still want the best for me, and are still in control. I pray that rather than an attitude of complaint, I’ll have the attitude expressed in this beloved hymn:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul …
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul …
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul
