Unhappy Campers!! Not happy Jan!

Life is just not fair - why do the 'nice' people nearly always finish last?

Life can be a lot like that - the wicked prosper while the 'nice' people always seem to be dragging around the bottom of the list when it comes to being blessed. Or so it seems.

Jeremiah complained to God about the same things in his book chapter 12: 1-4. It is good old Jerry's plain talk to God in his prayer time.

He starts off with praise to God - admitting that God is righteous and always is so when he brings a case to Him.

God is righteous! - He is fair and just - His ways are not always our ways.  But we have to have reliance in Him and on Him if we are to trust him in the way that he commands us to.

Poor old Jeremiah starts complaining to God about the injustices of the world - -He asks the same old question that we have asked ourselves - if not to God directly - "Why do the wicked prosper?"

I guess if we are brutally honest we have all asked a similar question.

The unscrupulous always seem to prosper in the world - the drug lords, the crime bosses - the fraudsters - the corrupt politicians - the liars - the violent offenders, the welfare and compensation cheats and so the list goes on. They always seems to be able to hold the 'get-out-of-jail-free' card. They seemingly go from strength to strength.

It just doesn't seem to be fair!  Whereas the so called 'nice' people of the world pay their taxes and try to always do the right thing and what happens? They get slandered, unfairly accused, evicted from their homes, suffer illnesses, lose their jobs, have marriage break ups etc - It's just NOT FAIR!

Even Godly people seem to be downtrodden - unable to speak their minds.  If they dare try to - they are  shouted down as being bigoted, unreasonable, homophobic, racist, sexist and other horrible, untrue and hurtful names - anything to silence them in the world.

Why is it so?

Well, looking through the Bible heaps of others felt the same - way way back though the Old testament. Habakkuk was one along with Jeremiah and Daniel.  The Psalms are full of  "Why Lords?" There just doesn't seem to be answer.

I guess we can't really give an honest answer - Although God assures us, through the life of Jesus, that He does care and He keeps reminding us so.

Jesus told Pilate at his "trial" that it was no good looking for His kingdom here on earth - if they did think that and if his kingdom was here - then His servants would have fought for Him and he would not have been given over to the hostile Jews and he would not be standing before Pilate.

No! He said His Kingdom is from another place - and we know where that Kingdom is - Heaven.

So Jesus Himself didn't think of His home here on earth at all and he implores us that we should do the same.

Jesus didn't care about what other people had - He didn't hanker for their riches and homes - He said himself that he had nowhere even to lie down - amazing!

Satan is always on the lookout for others to join his band of merry men - he strolls around the earth looking to see who he can recruit.

He has his bag of temptations with him - and loves to show us how badly off we are and how good our neighbours are faring!

So it is for Satan's own benefit to encourage his followers prosper? - after all they can recruit even more people for him!

Romans chapter one has heaps to say about what will happen to the Godless - and it aint pretty - read it for yourself.

What a dark place to be YUK!

God on the other hand - keeps saying to us that there are better times ahead - and for eternity!

Our home here on earth is only temporary - Jesus himself confirms that - No He didn't want to go to Calvary - the very thought of it chills you to the bone.

Jesus died on the cruelest and evilest creation of mankind - spawned from the depths of hell itself.

Through all of His suffering He knew that His home was with God for eternity - He had an awesome Job to do and he was the only one that was able to do it.

He didn't look back and ask 'why?' - he didn't want what others had - he gladly did what He had to do and kept His eyes firmly fixed on the goal.

Let's not waste time looking and envying, asking questions and getting depressed over foolish and Godless even wicked people so-called "prospering" in this world - they are actually doomed.

We certainly have an obligation to pray for these sad lost folk - that God will give us a heart of mercy and grace - that we will be able to see that God's way even if it is hard here on earth, is actually the only way.

Satan, and I'm afraid many other prosperous people will all suffer the same fate - eternal separation from God -  ETERNAL separation - sounds pretty final to me.

Let's be content with what we have - what we have been blessed with - Look to the Saviour - Keep Him close because if we don't Satan will only be too happy to snuggle up to  us if we let him.

1 Samuel 17:47 says "For the battle is the Lord's".  God, He himself will claim the victory over everything and everyone.

 So let's not get all hot under the collar about what and who is prospering and how 'unfair' it all is.

Our God is ever faithful - He is still on His throne - we don't have to look to the world for our satisfaction.

Our God knows our needs and wants - he understands what we are going through - our trials, our troubles, our illnesses, our griefs - in fact everything.

Our job is to remain faithful to Christ who remains ever faithful to us - He is the one we must keep our eyes on - His home is going to be our home - we are only passing through here - visitors in time.

Let's keep our eyes on the goal and not on our 'prosperous' neighbours.