“Thank goodness the air conditioning went out!” As a Texan in the middle of July, I had no idea that these words would ever come out of my mouth. Unfortunately, that sentence of gratitude came after a lot of other sentences that, on hindsight, look suspiciously like murmuring and complaining. See, as is often the case, there was a gap of time in between the bad thing that happened and my understanding of how God was going to use it for my good and His glory. Instead of trusting Him, my knee-jerk reaction brought both regret and shame. When it was over, the Lord showed me what I should have done instead. He taught me the GUARD method for praying when things don’t go as planned.
One More Thing
It all started when the lights went out in the kitchen. My pastor’s son Chase is an electrician, and he had been over last week to make a temporary fix. Unfortunately, his intention to write an estimate for new LED fixtures was interrupted for almost a week as he took care of a family emergency in another state. In the meantime, the makeshift repairs had fizzled out. For a couple of days, we were back in the dark.
When he returned to finish the job, I felt safe to run to the store while my husband stayed home. On the way back, I started getting text messages, rapid fire, from my husband through my car’s speaker system. The series of beeps registered three new messages as my husband alerted me to the issues. Apparently, the air conditioning was on the fritz. Water was now leaking through the ceiling into the living room.
To my shame, my response was, let’s just say, less than spiritual. “Do we need ANOTHER THING, Lord?” I wondered out loud in frustration. And then “Why does my husband always tell me about the problems like I’m the one who has to figure out how to fix it?” Fuss, fuss, fuss. Driving home, I didn’t even hear my husband’s third message as I fretted right over the car’s faithful robotic reporting of it.
The Third Message
As soon as I walked in the door, the situation became clear, as did my sin and shame. My husband wasn’t asking me to figure anything out. He was simply keeping me in the loop. Yes, the air had gone out and started leaking through the ceiling into the living room, but the two men had already located the problem and were on the way to fixing it. Chase, as it happens, had just spent a year working with his brother-in-law in the air conditioning business, so he knew just what to do. He ran to get the equipment and was back in a flash to clean out the clogged lines. He finished both the lights and the air conditioning repair, all for the same low price quoted for just the lights.
“Thank goodness the air conditioning went out while Chase was here!” I said to my husband later. Any other time, the issue would have cost us a lot of time and money to get someone else out to fix it. The Lord had completely hooked us up, just as He has helped us so many times before. Even the delay worked perfectly with God’s timing. I was so ashamed and sorry for my murmuring and complaining. Why didn’t I just trust Him?
The Israelites Had Trouble Too
It’s funny how, reading the Old Testament, we can start to marvel when the Israelites keep underestimating God. After ten spectacular plagues, the Israelites freaked out at the Red Sea – just before God parted it and led them safely to the other side on dry land (Exodus 14). Pretty soon, they were thirsty and started complaining about the murky water they found – just before God showed Moses how to make the bitter water sweet (Exodus 15). Then it was hunger. The Israelites murmured and complained again – just before God sent manna from Heaven (Exodus 16). Then it was thirst again – just before God showed Moses how to get water from a rock (Exodus 17).
On and on the story goes as God showed time and again that He would always provide for His people. Instead of remembering what God had done and assuming that He would help them again, the people just looked at their situation and murmured…just like I did. Moses, on the other hand, didn’t complain. He prayed. And that’s exactly what we should do too.
A Specific Prayer in Tough Situations
Complaining can be a gut reaction, but the Bible tells us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The term “metacognition” means that we are aware of our thoughts and their patterns. If we are on GUARD, we can avoid the sin of murmuring and complaining and the shame of underestimating God.
Next time something happens that is less than ideal, try the GUARD method of prayer instead.
Murmuring and Complaining Be Gone
In the end times, we are in an almost constant state of battle with an enemy that is seeking to wear out the saints. Sometimes it’s not one thing but a series of things that seem to go wrong in our lives when all we want is a little peace. But murmuring and complaining didn’t help the Israelites, and it won’t help us either. Instead, we should GUARD ourselves from it. We should give God our Gratitude, Unburden our hearts, Affirm our trust in God to take care of us, Request for God to help us, and then Decide to prayerfully watch and wait to see what He will do. Sometimes bad things are just the vehicle God uses to show Himself strong on our behalf. He wants to remind us that He is with us and for us until the Day of His soon return.
If you like articles about dealing with hard times, try Psalm 107: God Hears the Cries of the Desperate or James 1:2: Embrace the Suck. Please sign up to receive my blog in your email inbox. You can find that at the upper right of your screen (or at the bottom on a phone). Also, check out my YouTube Channel where I read the blogs out loud.
