Stop complaining all the time
There is a lot to complain about right now. You can’t do the things you want to do. Your job situation is at the very least disrupted, maybe uncertain, and maybe just gone. The kids being at home means things are louder and messier than you’d like. The lack of certainty makes you grumpy. Your inability to spend time with family and friends eats away at you. If you complain to others, they will agree with you. If you share your complaints on social media, you will get a lot of likes and comments. Complaining is the standard response to troubles.
It doesn’t need to be this way.
The prophet Habakkuk was told that the Assyrians would invade his home country of Israel. Habakkuk knew that this was just and the will of God, but he also knew that the country he loved would be ravaged and many would die. In the context of that knowledge, he wrote these words:
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. (Hab. 3:17-19 ESV)
Habakkuk is no starry-eyed optimist. He knows the situation to come will be desperately bad. But amid this impending doom, he rejoices in the Lord. He knows that God is his God, the personal covenant God of his people. He knows that salvation is from God. He knows that security like the feet of the deer comes from God. All the truths about God he has known since his youth are still true, regardless of the coming tragedy.
We need to remember that. God remains good, and in control, and your heavenly Father. Your salvation remains secure even when your job does not. The beautiful day God has given us today is still evidence of God’s design and power.
Today, when the urge to complain arises (and it will), think twice before posting to social media or whingeing at your children. Remember that God is still good and you have many things to be thankful for. Perhaps you could spend time with those in your household listing things you are thankful for today.
As Paul put it in 1 Thessalonians:
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thess. 5:16-18 ESV)