Daily Puritan Quote

I am not normally a quote reader, but I saw one today as I perused my Google Reader that caught my attention. I followed it to A Puritan at Heart and it reads:

Murmuring is a great sin...it is the scum of discontent or the vent of impatience, or such bold expostulations and complaints as flow from an exulcerated mind ...First men mutter, then complain. The heart boils with impatience and then the froth is cast out in passionate speeches and complaints. Humble complaints are not murmurings, else there would be no place for prayer; but bold expostulations are murmurings when we complain rather of God than to God. [Thomas Manton]

I read this and was immediately under conviction. One thing that emerging from my spiritual depression has shown me is that my spirit has become critical and cynical. I do way too much murmuring, and much of it has led to complaining.

There has been a discontentment in my heart and this is not a good thing.

At first I thought it interesting to connect murmuring with impatience, but when I read this, it dawned on me how absolutely true it is.

I think Thomas Manton worded some of what I learned in my prayer time last week very well.

So, being under that conviction I confessed and apologized to my friend and she replied "Praise God for conviction that frees us from bondage!"

Amen.