Fear No Fear

“Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may be blameless and harmless, sons of God, without fault, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14-15, MEV). If you have kids, have seen kids, or spent any time around kids – especially in a library or a toy store – then you know that humanity has mastered the ability to whine. In fact, you might start thinking that it is part of human nature. But – praise God! – we have been FREED from whining. We do NOT have to do it. All it does is to feed the selfish flesh we are trapped in. It has NO benefit. It gets us NOTHING. It improves us in NO WAY. It is a terrible way of speaking. It robs our arguments of their validity. It strips our words of power. It waters down our convictions. It is a terrible thing. And we have been SAVED from it. We do NOT have to whine. We can choose to use His fruit and we can choose to grow fruit of our own from His seeds. We can cultivate a vocabulary that doesn’t include murmurs, disputes (instead of not seeing eye to eye with someone), or the whining that births those two things. We can act in a godly way. With patience, kindness, and faithfulness to our relationships. God loves us enough to give us the language and the foundation for us to be upstanding in ALL our words and communication with each other. Basing them on HIS point of view, and not our feelings. Whining is a WONDERFUL thing to be free off and we can all be grateful His love challenges us to grow up in Him – instead of throwing a selfish tantrum.