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Is God Fair or is He Gracious?

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How does it make you feel when you have worked so hard for something only to not achieve it or just fail at it. Perhaps you were working hard for a promotion at work. You stayed late when you had to without complaint, went above and beyond to prove your abilities, you were honest and loyal and someone else who was far less experienced and than you got the promotion. Hardly seems fair.

Maybe all your friends are getting married and having babies and you are having a hard time finding the right guy or girl or experiencing miscarriage after miscarriage. You take care of yourself, eat healthy, exercise, and still no baby. Or maybe it’s your marriage. Your friend’s marriage crumbled but now, they are back together but your marriage seems like there is no hope that any reconciliation is possible. How is this fair? But it happens and God allows it. It seems like the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Life just isn’t turning out how you had planned. Sometimes God’s actions clash with what we expect.

Habakkuk saw injustices happening and what appeared to be the evil ones succeeding. Read the book of Habakkuk, it’s only four chapters. In this book, God offers hope, as He always does.

Habakkuk makes no bones about complaining to God and asking questions like, why and how long. Habakkuk had to posture himself before God. Be it on your knees or not, the most important the posture of your heart – humility. Philippians 2:3-8 offers some insight into the posture Jesus had. Habakkuk also had to be patient and wait on God – Psalm 46:10 – this can be hard but so necessary. I sometimes wonder if “being still” means not frantically worrying and worshipping the problem we face, but instead frantically worshipping our Father. How many times does a solution comes to us when we aren’t thinking about it. For me I could be cooking dinner, driving, reading a book, in the middle of writing a blog post or serving Him and God will hit me with the answer to my problem. Most times, that’s how God speaks to me, when I’m not solely thinking about my problem.

God replies to Habakkuk in 1:5; “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told
…”. Then in Chapter 2, verse 2 God tell Habakkuk to write down His answer to warn others. God is telling Habakkuk in verse 3 to wait, wait for what He is going to do. God will make everything right, but we have to wait. We need to continue to have the right posture and be patient.

God’s ways are not our way- Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.” “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” – Psalm 115:3. God is sovereign, He sees the big picture. What appears to be unfair to us now, God is delivering us grace. That can be a hard pill to swallow. Through all the injustices we see now, God sees, He knows what He is doing. We need to have faith and trust Him.

Here’s something to think about, what is the difference between grace and fairness? Leave a comment below, what are your thoughts?