Am I Complaining Too Much About My Circumstances?!

It's very easy for me to complain about life isn't it? It's natural for my flesh to want a smooth and easy path when that's not what the Christian life is about. One huge problem is that I'm in greater danger when my life is smooth sailing than when I'm in turbulent storms. The reason is because there's the saying, "Bad times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men and weak men create bad times." It's very easy for me to complain about a sudden rock in my path after I've had it easy for some time. What I may be ignoring is this truth:

1 Peter 1:7  

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

These times of ease would be like times of prosperity, when there's much money and times of ease than in times of hardship. The hard times come and it's very easy for me to complain. What I may be forgetting is that Jesus never promised an easy life. I promised He did but that would go against His holy nature as God the Son. But that's not the only point that when I got saved I never got in there for an easy life. I wanted to get saved because I wanted to get right with God and I'm fed up with sin. When I complain I sin because I forget that God has His reasons for allowing difficulty. It's because I'm not yet completely free from sin and God's still working with me. Whatever sins I have that I need to know about must be revealed to me and it can't be known until I've been tried. Trials is also God's way of telling me that I've been neglecting my prayer life and I've sinned.

Hebrews 12:5-8 

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

God has every reason to chastise me. Have I had lustful thoughts? Have I had thoughts of revenge? Even my very thoughts are sinning against God even at this very moment so I don't have the right to say, "God I've been so God, why are you chastising me?" He might only reply to me through His Holy Spirit saying, "You still have sin and I love you so much to leave you alone. I want to chastise you to protect you."  

There's another issue that I need to think about. When God allows me to go in times of trouble I can remember the old statement, "I complained about losing my shoes until I realized someone had lost their feet." I think about how situations for other people are so bad and that maybe my situation isn't that bad. Maybe I think I've got the biggest cross to bear but it's not as big as I think. If there's a reason why God allows such painful trials for me or for any Christian it's because there's sin to deal with and He loves His children more than enough to let them enjoy it. He also allows bad times so Christians wouldn't be complacent about their situations.

In truth, it's very easy to be complacent and sinful in times of ease. Just think that David's greatest sin occurred when he was at ease. 1 Samuel 11 tells us the whole account of David and Bathsheba. David who was having a good time and was at ease soon spotted Bathsheba taking a bath. David's fall happened because he was at ease. Solomon's downfall was not during the time of his earlier reign but when he started to have all the wealth. 1 Kings 11 tells us how Solomon fell down. Remember Solomon had all the wealth and power that he could have. What he did in his old age was foolish. He wrote Proverbs and Song of Solomon. Solomon wrote a beautiful love song and spoke about strange women. Soon enough he was misled by strange women. What happened to the person who wrote the beautiful love song to the Shullamite woman in the Song of Solomon? When he wrote Ecclesiastes he wrote about how foolish he was in his pursuits. He had 1,000 women but he could only love the woman in the Song of Solomon. 

The truth is whatever pain I'm going through is really light compared to what I deserve. There's a statement that I should be careful about asking for justice because I might get destroyed by it. I can't go and keep singing "Amazing Justice" when salvation is about mercy and not justice. Fair would have only sent me to Hell. It's mercy that saved me from my sins and not God's justice. Jesus took the bigger blow of what I deserve. The truth of the matter is I should have been the one on that cross. I should have been the one beaten to a pulp and nailed to that cross but Jesus took it so I could receive the free gift of salvation. In truth here's the verse that keeps me going when I'm already starting to complain about my not-so-bad circumstances:

Romans 8:19 

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.