Grace for Your Day February 1

When someone suffers, the question is often asked: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” People want to know why does God let the innocent suffer. Why does He allow people to die and get sick and lose their jobs? Why did He allow the Coronavirus to occur this past year?

However, another question that should be asked is: “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Why does God allow good things to happen to the guilty? Why does He allow criminals and law-breakers to get ahead in this world while the rest of us struggle? This is a question that is directly related to our discussion of “The Christian and the Government” because so many of our politicians are evil today. So many of our world leaders are bad which is what the Psalmist talks about in Psalm 73:1-5:

God certainly is good to Israel,
To those who are pure in heart!
But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling,
My steps had almost slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
As I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no pains in their death,
And their belly is fat.
They are not in trouble like other people,
Nor are they tormented together with the rest of mankind.

Here the author asks the question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” He looks at the things happening around him and he notices that the wicked are prosperous. Their belly is fat and they do not experience trouble like the rest of us. Life is good for them. Life is easy. In fact, it is so easy that it makes him sick until he says in verses 16-17:

It was troublesome in my sight
Until I entered the sanctuary of God;
Then I perceived their end.

The success of the wicked made him sick until He looked to God. It made him envious until he entered the sanctuary and considered how the Lord will deal with the wicked in the end. He remembered that the Lord will punish them one day and it gave him peace.

The point is that “God” is the answer to the problem of evil. God is the One who will solve it for us because He will make it right in the end. He will one day punish the wicked. Therefore, God is the One that we should be thinking about in times like this. He is the One that we should be thinking about when our world leaders are bad which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to end our series on the government by talking about “When Wicked Kings Prevail.” We are going to talk about how to handle it when our world is run by those who reject God and His commands. Please join us as this will be a sobering study but a good one. The sermon will be recorded on Saturday night and posted on our YouTube Channel for Sunday morning. – Jeremy Cagle