There are any number of life situations that speak to us about what it means to live with difficult challenges.  “Caught between a rock and a hard place”, “Behind the eight ball”, “pushing a boulder up a hill” are a few that come to mind.  All of those difficult situations become a reality when anyone becomes a victim of injustice practiced by those who — within themselves — believe themselves to be gods.  They typically see the world through a lens which leads them to believe that everyone and everything is beholden to them.  And so, they create corrupt systems absent of any sense of fairness for those who may be poor or weak.  They deny any sense of justice for those who are oppressed and alone.  God’s system in their eyes is a system that doesn’t provide the freedom or power they need to abuse, pervert, and abandon what God’s system of justice is predicated on — defending the weak, protecting people from the wicked people of the world, rescuing the needy, and upholding the cause of the oppressed.  The situation is magnified by God’s truth that they know better than to do differently.

         However, because they refuse to see beyond their selfishness, while they have been designated as gods but refuse to honor themselves as children of god, there will be nothing special about their demise.  They will die like every other mortal.  And in the end, God’s justice — true justice — will triumph.

         But in the meantime — the in-between-time — we will have to live with their ignorance waiting for God’s true justice to reveal itself.  In the meantime, we are caught between the hard rock of injustice and the soft cushion of God’s care for the oppressed.  In the meantime, we’ll continue to cry out to God to come and judge the world with equity and fairness, trusting that God will come.   After all, those of us who are the victims of injustice are God’s inheritance.

• Have there been times when you prayed that God would come and do something about the evil and injustice in the world?
• What about your personal experience with oppression cries out to God to come and do something?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving and gracious God, give me strength to endure injustice until You come to judge and hold accountable those who have perverted and practiced injustice which threatens to damage all creation. Help me to hold out until Your true justice appears.

         We are notorious for our human efforts to prove our worthiness before God and each other.  We provide and create elaborate ways and schemes just to prove to ourselves that we are not who we appear to be, but are people who can transform ourselves into loving, acceptable, and quality people who live our lives with purpose and meaning.  That’s our delusion and an illusion.  The truth is we have failed to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.  We have failed to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  We have failed to live in faithfulness to God or to one another. And therein lies our mistake.  By creating our own entry way into a life of faith, we have broadened the road and widened the gate of life to the point that whatever we do runs the chance of leading not only ourselves, but others away from all that God has done to make a way for us.

         But God has provided a way for us to enter into relationship and life with the God of all creation.  The gate that allows entry onto the road that leads to life is much narrower than the gates of our own self-made means of entry.  The gate God has provided for us is a gate that takes care of all our needs and provides grace for any shortcomings that we might have upon entering.  That narrow gate is the grace of God offered by faith in Jesus Christ.  That is the gate by which we must enter that leads to life.  And while there may be few that find it, God’s grace is the only way through which we can enter.  Again, God has shown us that those things we can’t provide for ourselves, God has provided.  God remains our everything — everything we need to have life and have it abundantly.

• Have you ever tried to negotiate a deal with God to secure your salvation in a particular situation?
• Did you ever come to realize that “God’s grace was sufficient for you” in your weakened and helpless condition?
• How did that confirm that God was your everything?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, thank You for providing an entry onto the road of life that doesn’t require my creativity. You are my everything and have provided everything for me to live.

         A prominent quote from Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, says, “… to thine own self be true.”  There is something important about living with integrity of self.  If, in fact, we can do that — live with self‑integrity — then we can avoid the issue of self-hypocrisy.  This is important because we claim our relationship to God because we believe that God has called us to live for a higher purpose.  That faith then promotes the idea that integrity of self is raised to a higher level.  It requires that we lean on a more profound wisdom than our own — the wisdom of God by whom we were called.  It requires that we hear a clearer voice of spiritual reasoning than our own.  It requires a level of faith and trust in God that goes beyond our own righteousness.  It literally places us at a level of faith and trust in God that assures we will never stumble (trip ourselves up based on our own wisdom.). There is still something profoundly wise about the proverb that instructs us saying,

       5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

             and do not rely on your own insight.

       6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

             and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

God will make straight our paths.  And as Peter says, “ … if we do these things, we will never stumble.”  For how can we stumble if we are walking the path that our God has made straight for us?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Gracious and loving God, we express our gratitude for the guidance, wisdom, and care that enables us to live secure and productive lives through faithfulness to You.