If you’re a complainer, God wants to change your thinking …

Whine, gripe, and complain. The world is full of such negative attitudes!

Attitudes became so bad at one company that management took a drastic step.

“You will be happy in the office — and you won’t whine anymore at work!”

After one lady refused to smile all day at work, a German IT company banned grumpiness in an effort to promote a more congenial atmosphere, according to The Australian.

The new policy requires employees at Nuzwerk, in the German town of Leipzig, to sign a contract requiring them to remain in a good mood all day at the office and leave complaints and gripes about co-workers and work conditions at home.

“She used to moan so much that other employees complained about her complaining. Once it was part of the contract, however, our employees really started to think positively,” said office manager Thomas Kuwatsch.

A lot of us are like that moaning employee, we are so persistently negative that it even affects others. Like that employer, God wants to change our thinking.

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think …” Romans 12:2a.

God did not give His Son to redeem us so that we could continue to think, gripe, and complain like the rest of the world. Instead, His primary objective is that Christians become like Christ. You certainly cannot be like Christ and think (and gripe!) like those who belong to the world.

“But that isn’t what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes,” Ephesians 4:20-23.

“For, ‘Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?’ But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ,” 1 Corinthians 2:16.

The Apostle Paul goes so far as to tell us what we should think about …

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise,” Philippians 4:8.

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God,” Colossians 3:1-3.

Is griping and complaining a routine part of your day? Do you heed Paul’s instructions about how to focus your thoughts? Or does God need to transform your thinking? What could you do to have a more Christlike attitude?

Scotty