Hi ~

I remember when I was young reading the heading of Psalm 102.

“A prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint before the Lord.”

(I used the King James in those days. Still do, mostly. 😊 )

As a teenager who was not experiencing abuse but was experiencing hormones, I had plenty of complaints of a teenage variety. I took many of them to the Lord and poured them out before Him.

My complaints generally centered around my social stuntedness and my lack of boyfriend.

Very, very, VERY different from the complaints David was actually complaining about in Psalm 102.

But it was a tiny start for me. Childish and immature, but a start. At least I was going to the Lord.

It is a foundational place from which to grow out of the childishness of the Old Testament Israelites.

So what about us as we grow in maturity?

Who do we go to with our complaints? Can we go to anyone other than the Lord?

As you know, the term “complaint” can mean “any expression of negative thoughts and/or feelings.” So in that case, yes, the Scriptures give significant examples of going to others with negative talk.

Here’s a graphic I used in the chapter about “negative” and “positive” talk in Untwisting Scriptures #3:

(I should have distinguished “Bad complaining” in that graphic, but perhaps this series of emails is the supplement to that.)

Moses went to the Lord with his complaint and received solutions (I talked about this in an email a couple of days ago).

But the Bible makes it clear that it’s often appropriate to go to a “skin on” person who can help as well.

Acts chapter 6 tells a story about the bursting-at-the seams new church of Jesus Christ. But there was a problem.

“Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists [Jews who had been “Greekified”] arose against the Hebrews [Jews who maintained their Jewish speech and customs] because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.”

There was a double standard.

And someone was complaining about it!

The apostles, who loved the Lord and others, listened to that complaint. They took that complaint seriously and did something to correct it.

Do you see?

The Scriptures show that pointing out a double standard that needs to change is one very appropriate kind of complaint.

There are others. As we study them, we can form a robust understanding of what it means to “complain” in Scripture. Good and bad.

What other kinds of good complaints do you see in the Scriptures? Let me know, and I may write about them in the future.

With you in seeking the Lord for the good,

Rebecca

Untwisting Scriptures at heresthejoy.com

See my Untwisting Scriptures series

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