grumble or grateful?

Good morning!

Would you like to be one of the few people who seem to hear God and get direction daily? Don’t get me wrong, I know and believe the number one way to hear God and get direction is through His Word. We can be led astray at times if we stray away from His Word to us.

However, from what I have read, heard and personally experienced, the door to hearing God for all kinds of things is flung wide open when we praise and thank Him for everything and everyone - just as they are. Just as we are. 

God is always pruning us and growing us. So, by praising and thanking Him for everything and everyone, including ourselves, does not mean that there is no potential or need for change.  However, it does mean that we can trust that He uses all kinds of opportunities to reach us and get our attention. If we fail to receive His messages because they don’t come the way we would like, we end up frustrated, bothered, distressed, depressed. 

The opportunities that come our way could be big or small but they come. It is our choice whether we want to unplug our ears.

In his book, Power in Praise, Merlin Carothers describes a reader who reported to him on just such an opportunity. The man and his family had heard the message about praising God for all things at a local conference where Carothers was speaking. The man committed to thanking God for all things as he was driving his family home through cold, below-freezing weather. When they arrived home late that night, the home was freezing cold. He knew they could not stay there and he started to become frustrated but suddenly remembered to thank God for this, as silly as that seemed. 

Right away, he felt he heard a voice telling him to check the fan. The man knew nothing about furnaces. He asked God where the fan was. Behind the panel in the door to the right. He unscrewed the door. Step by step with a flashlight in hand, God directed him to fix the furnace and solved the problem!  From then on, the man had a rare sensitivity to the Holy Spirit promptings.

It all began with the act of his will to praise and thank God in a very unlikely circumstance. I have experienced this time and time again. God gives the words just when they are needed. Gentleness comes over me when normally I might be frustrated. Peace comes and with it, many more solutions and guidance than I would have had with a stubbornness that assumed to only thank God when I felt like it!

Complaining and grumbling by definition are accusations. That hits me because it is basically accusing God of not doing what I think He should do in this situation. Rather, I get to trust that He knows how everything weaves together in His perfect plan of salvation for all people.

Salvation is not just for heaven. It is for now. It is so we can have total wellness!

“I trust in the unending love of God; His passion toward me is forever and ever. Because it is finished, I will be praising You forever and giving you thanks.” Psalm 52:8b-9a TPT