Complaints The Bible generally depicts complaining as wrong. For example, God judged the Israelites for grumbling about their hardships in the wilderness (Num 14:27-37). Job complained mightily and earned God’s rebuke for it, yet God ultimately confirmed Job’s righteousness and rejected those who tried to stop him from complaining (Job 42:7-8). Job’s fundamental complaint was that God did not give him a fair hearing to demonstrate his innocence. Job’s friends attacked him for trying to vindicate himself, but God upheld Job’s innocence. In a gracious but firm act of self-revelation, God rebuked Job for his overreaching self-defense and implied criticism of God’s fairness. God shifted Job’s focus away from his troubles and toward God himself (Job 38–41). Scripture admonishes us to rejoice and give thanks in all situations (Eph 5:20; Phil 4:4; 1 Thes 5:16-18). It also calls us to endure through suffering and to persist in prayer (Jas 5:10-18). If we do want to complain in prayer, we should follow the pattern of the psalms, which lead us past ourselves and back to God (see, e.g., Ps 13). Job’s positive example (Jas 5:11) is not so much in how he responded to his troubles or to...