{"id":781,"date":"2018-04-30T12:13:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T12:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/?p=781"},"modified":"2018-04-30T12:13:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T12:13:53","slug":"pray-instead-of-complain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wewaitheworks\/2018\/04\/pray-instead-of-complain.html","title":{"rendered":"Pray Instead of Complain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-214\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/405\/2017\/04\/Man-Praying-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Man-Praying\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p>How often do you find yourself complaining about something? Once or twice a day, a few times a week, a few times a day, everyday nonstop and then you complain in your sleep? What do you complain about? Your family situation, your finances, your own inner peace search when it isn\u2019t going well, your love life, your lack of interest in school, your lack of interest or investment in your job? Do you constantly sit there and overthink things until you\u2019re literally crying your heart out and basically wallowing in your own pit of misery? Sure, everyone has those days and even those weeks where we would rather complain than do anything else. But complaining doesn\u2019t really help the situation at hand, does it? How many times do you find yourself complaining and think about how much you don\u2019t want to deal with the problem you\u2019re facing?<\/p>\n<p>In turn, not wanting to think about the problem only makes it even more difficult for you to face it. Nonetheless to ever want to face it head-on. So much energy is wasted on complaining about little things and turning molehills into mountains that you often get blinded to the beauty of life and the blessings of life that are all around you. You refuse to look for anything good in your life because there just doesn\u2019t seem to be anything worth doing, or the effort to see things in life as beautiful just isn\u2019t in you at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>When you get down into that pit of misery and start thinking \u201coh poor, poor pitiful me\u201d, it not only changes our mood, it changes your perspective from \u201c I can do this and I can get through anything\u201d, to a whiny voice inside our minds that wants you to sit there all day, every day and think about how bad life is for you. That is Satan. When you constantly complain about things in your life, whether they might be big or small things in your life, when you complain, you\u2019re giving Satan control instead of turning to God for peace and answers.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, we all have had days where the last thing we want to do is be told to get down on our knees and pray about everything. Some days the last thing we even want to do on those days is thinking about God. We might even start thinking that God doesn\u2019t love us the way we thought He did. We might even turn our sufferings into the blame game. Instead of looking inwardly at ourselves, we turn right around and bash others for our own shortcomings and our own unhappiness.<\/p>\n<p>Even worse, you might even bash God for our unhappiness by saying things such as, \u201cif you really loved me, why the heck are you letting me go through this?\u201d \u201cIf you love me, why am I falling on hard financial times? How can you not let me have enough money to provide for the people I love?\u201d \u201cWhy is my relationship suffering? How can you not be answering my prayers?\u201d Satan absolutely loves to see us suffering and miserable. He hates it when we turn our suffering around and come to God. That is one of the most important things that we can ever do to help ourselves and our situation.<\/p>\n<p>As an example, from my life, when I find myself complaining about something, it feels good to let off some steam and vent to myself. But it only lasts for a bit. Then I think, &#8220;well ok now I&#8217;m tired and I just wasted all that time complaining when I should have been praying about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Satan makes it feel good to complain. He loves to wear us out so much that we forget about how we can turn to God for anything and everything. Luckily after complaining even a bit, God normally wakes us up saying, &#8220;hey have you prayed about it as much as you&#8217;re complaining about it?! Hello. Turn to me I&#8217;m right here! I hear you complaining. Now let&#8217;s hear you pray instead.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>God doesn\u2019t want us to complain all the time about life, day in and day out. He wants us to fall to our knees and pray about anything we have on our minds especially the things that worry us. We waste so much time complaining that we actually forget the true benefits of praying and the ultimate benefit of having a relationship with God.<\/p>\n<p>So, stop letting Satan have control over your thoughts, your heart and over your life, and invite God into your heart, mind and your soul. Ask Him to turn your counterproductive thoughts into productive ones. Allow God to work in your life through prayer.\u00a0 Prayer is the most amazing connection to God because we can call on Him any time, day or night. Don\u2019t be afraid or too proud to turn to God and ask Him for help. Instead of always complaining, turn those negative thoughts into peace by praying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How often do you find yourself complaining about something? Once or twice a day, a few times a week, a few times a day, everyday nonstop and then you complain in your sleep? What do you complain about? Your family situation, your finances, your own inner peace search when it isn\u2019t going well, your love&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1310,776,775,774,605,642,1309,1308,231,1095,4],"tags":[61,42,8,228,29,263,1313,1311,7,58,1312,25,264],"class_list":["post-781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dont-have-a-pity-party","category-positive-affirmations","category-positive-lifestyle","category-positivity","category-power-of-prayer","category-pray","category-pray-for-peace","category-pray-instead-of-complain","category-pray-it-out","category-pray-when-you-least-feel-like-it","category-prayer","tag-choices","tag-christian-values","tag-god","tag-keeping-the-faith","tag-peace","tag-pray","tag-pray-instead-of-complain","tag-pray-when-you-dont-want-to","tag-prayer","tag-temptation","tag-the-power-of-prayer","tag-trials","tag-trusting-god"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pray Instead of Complain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Don\u2019t be afraid or too proud to turn to God and ask Him for help. 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