Grousing or Grateful

Do everything without complaining or arguing. Then you will be innocent and without any wrong. You will be God’s children without fault. But you are living with crooked and mean people all around you, among whom you shine like stars in the dark world.

Philippians 2:14-15 

I'm not sure about you, but are we, as God's children capable of doing everything without complaining or arguing? Does God REALLY expect us to, I don' t know, get along with each other?  I mean REALLY get along without being shallow or fake?  Is that possible?

The answer is a resounding "YES!"  Think about it for a minute.  If we live the same way the world lives, how will anyone be able to tell we are God's children?  If we grumble, grouse, gripe, complain, argue, backstab just like the world, who would believe that we are filled with God's love?

When we accepted Christ as our Savior, we accepted the sacrifice He made and God's loving forgiveness because of Christ.  As the Apostle put it, we became NEW CREATIONS!  God remade us and adopted us as His children.  

Yet...we still struggle with who we were....I do. 

I need to be reminded, pretty much on a regular basis, that I am God's representative and therefore to be the "light on the hill" for others to see.  I am tempted to switch on autopilot when I feel things going my way, then when turbulence hits my life, guess where I revert?  We must be diligent!  We must keep driving forward!  We must not let down our guard.

We CAN get along without complaining and arguing by putting things into perspective.  If we are battling over something that we won't be taking with us to Heaven, then we need to learn to "Come and REASON together."  Because if it's not going to Heaven with us, it shouldn't be worth dimming God's light in us for.