Daily Devotions
Righteous are You, O Lord, when I complain to You; yet I would plead my case before You. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? Jeremiah 12:1
In that passage we see that Jeremiah had a problem. Actually, he had a complaint.
Using the most polite and proper language he goes to the Lord and says, “I don’t think it’s fair. I think the good should get rewarded and the wicked should get punished. I think good people should get good things and bad people should get, well, they should get what’s coming to them. Lord, how come it’s not that way?”
It is quite possible you may have felt exactly the same. I know I have.
This past week I received an e-mail from a friend. It talked about unfair things. It spoke of the lady in Texas who won three quarters of a million dollars in a lawsuit. She had broken her ankle in a store when she tripped over a child who was running up and down the aisles. The child was her own.
The letter talked about a Los Angeles man who had his hand run over while he was stealing the hubcaps off his neighbor’s car. That fellow collected a bundle too.
We want to know, “Lord, how come life is unfair?”
How come hail hit my house and not that of my nasty neighbor? How come rich Aunt Grizelda has left her estate to my skirt-chasing cousin? How come, well, you get the idea. Life isn’t fair and we’d sure like to know why so we can make better sense of things.
Life is unfair.
Would it help any if I said your Heavenly Father understands and He agrees? After all, what could be more unfair than watching Your Son die on a cross as He is carrying all the sins of everyone else who has ever lived? Yes, the Lord understands unfairness, but that particular bit of unfairness had to take place if we were to be saved.
God understands unfairness, and He wants you to know He doesn’t like it any more than you. In fact, He hates unfairness and all the other sadnesses that sin has introduced into this world.
This is precisely why — when He feels the time is right — He is going to set things straight. The lambs get separated from the goats; the saved from the unsaved, and believers will begin an everlasting life in a place where unfairness — like tears — has been banished.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, give me patience as I endure the results of sin in this world. Let me realize that these pains and problems are only for a short time. Let me believe that the day is coming when — because of Jesus’ sacrifice — I will be removed from all unfairness. In Jesus’ Name I pray it. Amen.