The Best Is yet to Come

Read Psalm 58:10,11

Does it ever trouble you that the righteous seem to suffer, while the wicked seem to escape suffering? Have you ever gotten the bad end of a deal while somebody else--perhaps even a professing Christian--came out on top after doing something he shouldn't have done? If so, this passage will encourage you: "The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance . . . so that men will say, 'Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely He is God who judges in the earth."'

When someone else hurts us, when we get the bad end of a deal, we must first accept the burden and realize there is no real justice in the world today. Oh, there's some justice, of course. We are grateful for what the law is doing. But fundamentally, it seems that those who are doing good are being persecuted, while those who are doing evil are being promoted. Accept the burden of this seeming inequality. That's the way things are in this world.

Second, leave the situation with the Lord. When someone does something that shouldn't be done, we immediately want to right the wrong and punish the wrongdoer. But we must leave it with God. He says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay" (Rom. 12:19).

That leads to a third word of counsel: Wait on the Lord. Your reward is yet to come. This world is heaven for the unsaved. They never will experience the joys and blessings in the glory of eternity with the Lord. But a believer's heaven is yet to come. Heaven is a place of unmixed joy; hell is a place of undiluted sorrow. In this world we have a mixture of sorrow and joy. Wait, for your reward is yet to come.

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At times this world appears to lack justice. You need not fret over this. When you are faced with inequality, leave your burden with the Lord and wait patiently for Him to resolve the issue. For God's people, the best is yet to come.

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