A Prayer against Complaining
By Emma Danzey
“Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!” – James 5:9
Here comes the nagging again. Have you ever been guilty of being a cloud of rain on a sunshine-filled day? In other words, have you been in a cycle of complaining? It is really easy to fall into the “glass half full” mentality. No, we are not supposed to be happy all of the time. However, as believers in Christ, we are called to be filled with the Holy Spirit, which means we live out His fruit in our lives. It just so happens that complaining is not on that list. Today, we will take time to pray against complaining in our own lives and press into gratitude by faith in Christ.
Let's pray:
Dear Lord,
We come before You today, thanking You for another day of life and another day of being Yours. You have sealed us by Your Holy Spirit; we are always Your children. However, we confess that we do not always live like Your children. We fall short every day in different ways. Please forgive us for our attitudes of the heart and words of our mouths that are full of complaints against you and against others. Instead of throwing out negativity, we pray that You would empower us to filter our frustrations through prayer and petition to You.
Thank You that You actually welcome our emotions. We recognize that You are a holy God. You are our only hope of having the right mentality and attitude throughout our days. Help us, Holy Spirit. We are crying out to You to enable us to live by Your Spirit and not by our flesh. We pray that You would help us to pick up our crosses and follow You. This means that even in our challenges, we desire that You would refine us into Your likeness.
Forgive us for times when we have chosen to use our thoughts and our words for tearing down rather than building up. You say in Philippians 2:14-16 “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that we may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then we will shine among them like stars in the sky as we hold firmly to the word of life. And then we will be able to boast on the day of Christ that we did not run or labor in vain.”
Lord, help us to work, live, and love without complaints. Help us to become pure and blameless. Help us to shine like stars in the sky. Would our gratitude, joy, and fullness of life be a bright light of intrigue where our neighbors around us would know that what we have is out of this world. Would they identify us as beautifully strange and abundantly loving. Would they not be able to say that we grumbled but that we were faithful.
Help us to live out James 5:9, that we would “not grumble against one another or we will be judged.” Forgive us for the struggles that we have to gossip or speak negatively of those around us. May our tongues be bridled for the sake of the gospel and those around us. When we are hurt or unhappy with the decisions of superiors, family members, or friends, may we have the utmost respect for them with our demeanor and our word choices.
Father, forgive us for how easy it is to speak against rather than speak for. Help us to be advocates for You, not slanderers. We cannot do this on our own. This is only by Your grace flooded in us by the power of Your Spirit. We are leaning upon You and declaring in Your name, Jesus, that we will denounce all areas of complaining. We pray that we would walk away from them. We ask that we would break up with the bad and marry the good. We pray that we would be firmly established with Your Word and that we will stand by it as our foundation to live lives worthy of the calling of Your children. Help us to represent You better. Thank You for new mercies every morning. Thank You for the spirit of thanksgiving that You provide.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/fizkes
Emma Danzey’s mission in life stems from Ephesians 3:20-21, to embrace the extraordinary. One of her greatest joys is to journey with the Lord in His Scriptures. She is wife to Drew and mom to Graham. Emma serves alongside her husband in ministry, she focuses most of her time in the home, but loves to provide articles on the Bible, life questions, and Christian lifestyle. Her article on Interracial Marriage was the number 1 on Crosswalk in 2021. Most recently, Emma released Treasures for Tots, (Scripture memory songs) and multiple books and devotionals for young children. During her ministry career, Emma has released Wildflower: Blooming Through Singleness, two worship EP albums, founded and led Polished Conference Ministries, and ran the Refined Magazine. You can view her articles on her blog at emmadanzey.wordpress.com
Editor's Note: We're proud to announce we've just launched a new nighttime companion to Your Daily Prayer: the Your Nightly Prayer devotional. You'll soon be able to subscribe to receive Your Nightly Prayer via email, or as a podcast, but for now you can find it on the website at crosswalk.com/devotionals/your-nightly-prayer. We hope it's a relaxing and soothing way to wind down your day with rich meditations on who God is.
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