There are those who cannot understand why people that are obviously very selfish and seem to not care about other people prosper. It is indeed a hard pill to swallow and even the wisest man that ever lived had to search to understand why this happened.
Solomon wrote his thoughts down and they are recorded in the bible to help us start on our journey to understanding divine providence.
Ecclesiastes 8:14-17
“Here also is a futility that goes on upon the earth: there are righteous men who fare as though they were wicked, and wicked men who fare as though they were righteous. I say that this also is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)!
“Then I commended enjoyment, because a man has no better thing under the sun [without God] than to eat and to drink and to be joyful, for that will remain with him in his toil through the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.
“When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to see the business activity and the painful effort that take place upon the earth—how neither day nor night some men’s eyes sleep. Then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun—because however much a man may toil in seeking, yet he will not find it out; yes, more than that, though a wise man thinks and claims he knows, yet will he not be able to find it out.”
Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “God makes His sun to risen the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.”
We are all given a measure of faith and faith is the only thing that will establish our heart when we seem to get mixed messages coming at us from every direction. It does not seem right for the righteous to suffer and the wicked to prosper. Solomon found that joy and a sound mind can only come from confidence in God. We can have no better thing under the sun than being sober and thankful.
Being humble before God is being content in using the things of this life according to our God given gifts and calling. If that is the state of our life, we would not have to try to come up with a reason for what God does. We will then learn to trust the Lord to clear all of these difficulties in His own time. Then we can cheerfully enjoy the comforts, and bear up under the trials of life. Peace, conscience, prosperity, and joy experienced in God’s Holy Spirit will be with us through all outward changes, even when our heart and flesh seem to fail.
These are the life changing biblical truths we look into at the Gathering Place Church every Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30 and Wednesday evening at 7. We have Youth Group and First Steps Recovery on Sunday evening at 6. Come and join with us as we walk out this journey of life together.
