ISAIAH 53:3-11 – He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

THEME OF THE DAY. WHEN TEMPTED TO COMPLAIN. Everyone does it. Yes, everyone. Don’t deny it. It might be a small thing like a broken air conditioning unit on the hottest day of the summer. Maybe a stop light that is stuck on red making us think it has eternal life. Whatever or whoever it may be, each of us are tempted to and give into complaining.

There are a couple of serious problems with complaining. First and foremost it is sin. It is. Really. I know we may not think of it as such because it is easily tolerated in our lives, but complaining about anything or anyone is sin – serious sin. Take time and read from the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapters 11 through 14. God makes it clear complaining of any type is sin against Him. That alone should cause us to hit the pause button when tempted to complain. Another thing about complaining is it reveals how spiritually immature we really are. We are failing to live aware of the sovereignty of God. When we complain, we are forgetting God is in control and orchestrating all things to include the situation or person we are tempted to complain about. To complain is to be displeased with God’s will unfolding in our lives and is a direct attack, even blasphemy, of His always good and loving ways.

But there is hope, sure hope, to defeat the sin of complaining in our lives. It is found in today’s scripture. When we are tempted to complain about our circumstances, suffering, and other things that unleash a complaining attitude and tongue, run to today’s scripture and meditate on all the suffering the Lord Jesus did for us. If we spend time thinking on Him and what He endured, there will not be a complaining bone in our bodies. All complaining is silenced when we look unto Jesus and ponder all He undertook for us. In fact, such meditation will cause us to do all-out war against any form of temptation to complain; a war we will consistently win with a fixed gaze on the Lord Jesus.

PRAYER: “Father, draw me near to Your Son in His sufferings when I am tempted to complain in mine.’”

QUOTE: “When tempted to complain about anything, run to the sufferings of Christ and overcome the temptation”