QUIT COMPLAINING AND START PRAYING

BY: SUNNY ORLY COFFMAN - YEAR 1998

 

The time is 4:42 a.m. The Lord finally got through my fog of sleepiness and impressed me to get out of bed and get onto paper what He has been speaking to me in my early morning hours.

He began by showing me a friend -- someone I was very close to for years. For all the years I knew this lady, I observed that most every time anyone gave her a gift, she would less than enthusiastically receive it, politely write a thank you, and before long, wrap it again and give it to someone else. It seemed the gifts were never good enough - never really met her expectations. And, rather than simply receiving them as expressions of love from another, she had to pass them on.

Suddenly, I got the revelation that God had used my friend as a mirror so I could see something within myself. How many times have I done the same thing and never even realized it? What a revelation and what a shock when I saw that many of these gifts were sent by God, wrapped in packages of flesh and blood. How many times had I received one of these special gifts, perhaps enjoyed the gift for a season, and because it did not continue to suit me, perhaps didn’t match up to my own expectations of a friend, rewrapped it in a box that had words of condemnation written on the outer covering, and conveniently placed it outside of my circle of special acceptance and waited for someone else to pick up this gift and accept it as a special treasure.

When God trusts you with one of His children, He is giving you a great opportunity to allow Him to love that person through you. It is imperative that you seek the Father and find out what your responsibility is toward that person and how God desires you seek Him concerning the perfecting of God to be done in that person’s life.

Back to basics: God only gave us one new commandment to follow after HIS GREATEST GIFT had been sent to us. When Jesus had fulfilled all of the Law, He said we were now to simply "LOVE GOD, AND LOVE OTHERS AS OURSELVES." Somehow, He said, by doing this, we would obey all of the law and all that the prophets had foretold of our time. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But what a tall order!

What was God’s chief complaint about the Israelites after He had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt? Was it not murmuring and complaining? It seems that every time He made new provision for them, all they did was complain about what He had done and how He had done it! How different is our own action today?

He really put me on a soul-search this morning. One of the beautiful things about God is how, even in the midst of life-changing correction, His discipline never puts you on a guilt trip. Oh, to have more of the attributes of God operating in our own lives!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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