Suffering, to complain or not

Last Sunday, Jim preached on some passage, 2 Corinthians I think, anyways, one of the things he mentioned was that when we complain in our suffering we are saying that God doesn't really know what he is doing. That has stuck like a burr in my head all week.

So when I read from Romans 5 this morning, these verses made me think about that again.

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Do you see the result here of suffering? Suffering leads to endurance, which leads to character, which leads to hope. HOPE does not put us to shame because God's love has been given to us, POURED into us by the Holy Spirit.

So should I complain when I suffer? Even when my body is achy and sore and doesn't work the way I want it to? Absolutely not! In fact I should rejoice in it. This suffering has good side effects! :) I must say, it is hard to rejoice.... but to not rejoice means that I am not giving the glory to God in all things. And that too, is something that I am to do.

Being reminded of my fraility is not a bad thing. It does force me to do rely on God all the more. It does force me to be able to emphasize with others who are in pain. It does lead me to handle pain better and so on and so forth.

So!!! No more complaining! Just praise God and move forward. See the good! Rejoice in what I am learning, and what is being produced in me. :) yes, I know.... easy to day than to do, but I will learn and I will get better at it. :) God's help don'tcha know.