"Turn Your Complaints Into Praise”
GOD'S WAY BIBLE STUDY
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
tURN yOUR cOMPLAINTS INTO pRAISE
Praise Is Our Natural Estate
Isaiah 43:7 NLT Bring all who claim Me as their God, For I have made them for My glory It was I who created them.
Psalm 145:10-12 All Your works will thank You, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise You.11 They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom;
they will give examples of Your power.12 They will tell of Your mighty deeds
and about the majesty and glory of Your reign.
Psalm 89:1-2I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.
Our mouths are made for praise.
God is pleased with our praise.
To complain is to misuse our lips.
Ephesians 4:29 NKJV Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Ephesians 4:29 NLT Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
When we praise God, He takes it personally.
God is good to all, but if you listen to those who praise God, you’d think He was good to them alone. And if you listened to those who complain, you’d assume God’s goodness has never visited them.
When we complain, God takes it personally.
Numbers 14:29 You will all drop dead in this wilderness! Because you complained against Me…
Heaven has no complaints department.
Heaven has a Requests Department.
Philippians 4:6
And when heaven wants to laugh, the suggestion box is opened.
Complaints have an undertone of blame and accusation.
a statement that a situation is unsatisfactory or unacceptable.: "I intend to make an official complaint" "there were complaints that the building was an eyesore".
synonyms: protest, protestation, objection, remonstrance, statement of dissatisfaction, grievance, charge, accusation, criticism, cavil, quibble, grumble, moan, whine, twine, beef, gripe, grouse, grouch, whinge, yike, plaint
“I am not happy and it is somebody's fault.”
The devil started the first attempt at fault finding.
Genesis 3:4-5 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5”God knows that your eyes will be open as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
Just as fear is the opposite of faith, complaining is the opposite of praise.
Complaint is praise turned upside down. Whenever you feel like complaining, turn it right side up, and burst out in praise.
Since the fall, complaint has become easier than praise.
We feel our complaints more deeply than we do our praises. We remember our pains for longer than we remember our blessings.
Exodus 15:24 Then the people complained and turned against Moses. “What are we going to drink?”They demanded.
Exodus 16:2 There, too, the whole community of Israel complained about Moses and Aaron.
Exodus 17:2 So once more, the people complained to Moses. Give us water to drink!” they demanded.!” “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”
Numbers 11:1 Soon the people began to complain about their hardship, and the Lord heard everything they said. Then the Lord’ s anger blazed against them, and He sent a fire to rage among them, and He destroyed some of the people in the outskirts of the camp.
Numbers 21:5 And they began to speak against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink, And we hate this horrible manna!”
Deuteronomy 1:27 You complained in your tents and said, “The Lord must hate us. That is why He has brought us here from Egypt– to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered.
Deuteronomy 6:16 You must not test the Lord as you did when you complained at Massah.
Every complaint undermines Your praise.
Learn to become a master at turning blame into praise.
Look for the silver lining in every dark cloud.
Even in the tightest spaces, there is always room for praise. We must learn to find that room.
Solutions are easier when complaint is turned into praise.
Joshua 15:16-19 Caleb said, “I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the one who attacks and captures Kariath-sepher.” 17 Othniel, the son of Caleb’s brother, Kenaz, was the one who conquered it, so Acsah became Othniel’s wife. 18 When Acsah married Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. As she got down from off her donkey,Caleb asked her, “What’s the matter?” 20 She said, “Give me another gift.You have already given me land in the Negev; nowplease giveme springs of water, too.” So Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
The world seems to view complainers as sophisticated.
They can see the smallest of faults. God sees them as blind. They cannot see the manifold blessings.
The ability to see what is wrong while being blinded to all the blessings is not a gift. It is a curse.
If it is a gift at all, it is the devil’s gift. Until the devil showed up, Adam and Eve did not know they were missing anything. The devil’s gift disqualified them from paradise.
