I am growingly convinced that the easiest of human activities is complaining. Think about it: complaining really requires next to nothing from us. We simply state our problems (often in anger) and nothing more. Complaining does not require us to take any tangible action or do any difficult work. It simply requires us to voice our complaint and hope that someone else resolves our problem. Because complaining is easy we do it… a lot! Think about it: how many things have you already complained about this week (and its only Tuesday morning!)? To be fair, we live in a sinful and broken world full of things to complain about. Yet, is complaining actually a solution to the problems we see? I would argue that we need to do more than complain about the world’s problems: we need to start acting boldly.
Again, complaining is easy, but also highly ineffective. Our complaints rarely bring about the change and transformation we desire. If we REALLY want to see our world transformed we need to take bold action. Acting boldly requires taking action to improve our world, and trusting God to use our work in a mighty way. We see many examples of this boldness in the book of Acts. Here is just one. This occured at a time when the Apostles had been ordered to stop evangelizing by the Jewish leaders.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:29-31
The Apostles didn’t justs complain, they acted boldly. They prayed, the took action, and they trusted God with the result. We see the result of this boldness in Acts 5:14: And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. The next time you find yourself complaining ask yourself: how can I be a part of God’s solution for this problem?
- Pray boldly: Take the problem to God in prayer, trusting that God has the power to bring about transformation. Pray with faith and boldness, knowing that God has the power to do things beyond our imagination.
- Serve boldly: One of the problems we have in serving God is we focus on all the ways we can fail instead of all the ways God can help us. When we serve we need to serve boldly: trusting God to take the seeds we plant and bring about the harvest.
- Have bold faith: When we boldly entrust a situation to God we have faith that, one way or another, God will step into the situation. That may occur tomorrow, next week, or maybe not until Christ returns. Our God is faithful. We need to boldly trust in His faithfulness.
