It started innocently enough.
Warm spring sunshine filtered through the newly-unfurled leaves in my daycare backyard. Children unleashed their pent-up energy, zigzagging across the grass.
Two of my little girls played on the swings in the playground. Back and forth, up and down, giggling and having a great time.
Until one of them decided she would stick her leg out to impede her friend’s progress.
Of course, this idea immediately backfired.
The swing smacked into her leg, and a torrent of tears ensued.
Those laws of gravity. They’ll get you every time. Especially when you’re trying to annoy your friend.
Now I don’t believe in karma, per se.
But I do believe in the authority of God’s Word.
Galatians 6:7 gives it to us pretty straight. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Proverbs 26:27 paints an even clearer picture for us. “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.”
Throughout His Word, God makes it clear that even though it appears evil may be winning for a time, justice always prevails in the end.
I know it’s hard.
It’s hard to watch the news night after night and see God’s laws ignored, Christians mocked, and wickedness running rampant across our land.
But the hardest thing?
The hardest thing is when someone sins against us personally, and it seems God is unaware of our pain. It’s when our swing has been forcibly stopped by another’s outstretched leg, and nothing happens to them.
We feel like crying, “Lord, didn’t you see that? Didn’t you hear what they said about me? What they did to me? Can’t you see how much I’m hurting?”
Sometime the hurts are small; sometimes they are big.
But they all have one thing in common: they hurt.
David felt this way. He felt like wickedness was winning and God didn’t care what was happening to him. But his feelings changed when he saw the hand of God move and when he experienced the deliverance of the Lord.
I usually only include a couple of verses in each devotional I write, but today I’d like to share several from Psalm 37 with you. If you are hurting and wondering where God’s justice is, I invite you to meditate on these verses. Take some time to sit and let the words of God sink into your heart. Let them be a balm for your troubled soul today.
“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment (justice) as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” (Psalm 37:1-11)
Instead of fretting and fuming about the evil in this world, God invites you to rest in Him and keep trusting that He is in control.
He sees all that is done, all that is said, even all that is thought about you.
And at the just the right moment, the Almighty hand of God will move.
Justice will prevail.