Tuesday, January 31, 2017

When God Laughs

Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.  Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.  Stop being angry!  Turn from your rage!  Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm.  For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the Lord will possess the land.  Soon the wicked will disappear.  Though you look for them, they will be gone.  The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity.  The wicked plot against the godly; they snarl at them in defiance.  But the Lord just laughs, for he sees their day of judgment coming.  Psalm 37:7-13(NLT)
I know you’ve thought this:  How in the world can he get away with that?   We want to know:  How can God NOT clobber someone with a sharp tongue like hers?  It just seems so unfair and weird that somebody who continually does bad stuff never seems to get what he’s got coming.  And to boot, she seems to be succeeding far above what good people have in their lives; I just don’t get it!
Whenever I find myslef indulging in that kind of thinking I ask myself a more important question:  How come God doesn’t light up my kindling with all the wrong stuff I’ve done?
Well, we could stand here and have a deeply theological debate about alll that for, well, perhaps a millennium or two, and never come up with an answer that will satisfy more than a few people – those who are more likely to agree with us anyway. 
But the simplest answers I’ve ever been able to sleep with are:

#1.  God is patient

The Psalmist said God just laughs at the wicked and all their plots, because He sees their end and there will not be anything that slips past the judgment bar.  If God can relax in the face of evildoers, well…I should also.

#2.  I’m not (and never will be) in charge…God is!

The Psalmist also wrote that our job is as we have in verse 7: 
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.  Psalm 37:7(NLT)
God has always reserved for Himself the right to vengeance or mercy; frankly, it’s none of our business.  Do you recall how after the resurrection, when Jesus was talking to the disciples on the seashore at the men’s breakfast, the Lord told Peter about some hard things the big fisherman would have to endure.  Peter looked over his shoulder at John and then asked Jesus:  What about him? 
Jesus replied:  Keep your eye on the ball, Peter; John is my business, not yours!
Frankly…I don’t need more instruction than that.  If I’ve got more questions, I think they can wait til Heaven.

For You Today

A good practice is to keep our eyes on what we are doing, and leave supervising evildoers to God.  He’s well-equipped to handle it; we’re not!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
NOTES

[i]Title image: By Southbanksteve from London, UK, via Wikimedia Commons

No comments:

Post a Comment