Key Bible Verse: No matter what happens, always be thankful (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Bonus Reading: Genesis 45:1-8

Exploratory surgery on a complainer would reveal grumbling to be a form of heart disease. The symptoms: loss of perspective, forgetting who's in control, and rebellion against authority.

God knows what he's doing. Joseph knew this. Scripture doesn't record a single complaint from his lips even though he was tossed into a pit by his brothers, sold into slavery, unjustly accused of fooling around with Potiphar's wife, thrown into prison, and forgotten by a friend he had helped.

What was the secret of his complaint-free life? The answer is in [today's Bonus Reading], where we find Joseph, now the governor of Egypt, addressing his starving brothers. Three times in four verses Joseph, in essence, says, "God sent me here." His perspective resulted from his faith in an omnipotent God who's in control and knows what he's doing.

Jesus tested his disciples by putting them in a little boat during a raging storm. They complained that they were perishing when they should have acknowledged God's sovereignty. God wants you to trust, in the midst of your circumstances, that his Word is truer than anything you can see or feel.

—Dennis Rainey in Moments Together for Living What You Believe

My Response: What is the opposite of complaining? Why does it require faith?

Thought to Apply: Griping and complaining are vocal amplifiers of one's heart attitude. —Dennis Rainey

Adapted from Moments Together for Living What You Believe (Regal, 2004) by permission.

Prayer for the Week

Teach me, Lord, to avoid complaining, since You are offended by the lack of trust it reveals.

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