how long will God wait?: One Year Bible Reading for October 12

 Today we read from these verses in the One Year Bible:

Jeremiah 19:1-21:14
1 Thessalonians 5:4-28
Psalm 82:1-8
Proverbs 25:9-10 

Let's look at the Psalm. The psalmist is crying out to God, asking how long He's going to put up with people who are evil, while those who are good, especially the poor, are suffering? So this is not a new problem. Whichever political party you hate, people have been doing that same thing that your hated party does for thousands of years. The rich and powerful take advantage of the poor and weak. And God seems to stand by and let the rich get richer and the poor suffer needlessly.

But there are some important things for us to remember about this. One is that suffering is good for us. If you want to read a whole book on how good suffering is for you, read this for free. But it's easy to see how suffering is good for us. Think about a rich girl who always gets what she wants and has never suffered in her life. Is she good? Or is she spoiled? Now think about a poor little girl who has suffered most of her life. Is she good? Or spoiled? Now, this is not universally true, of course. We have a CHOICE to make in whether suffering makes us better or bitter. But generally you see in your daily life that if we always get what we want, we don't end up as good people, and if we suffer, we have lots of opportunities to grow into wonderful people.

But also, keep in mind that this life is not the end. There WILL be a reward and a punishment following this life, and Jesus made it VERY clear that what you do for those who are suffering will determine where you spend eternity.

And that brings us to point three: WE can help those who suffer now. Let's be the change that we want to see in the world. Let's be God's hands and feet and help relieve some of that suffering that the Psalmist is crying out for.

God, thanks for reminding us of the role of suffering in our lives.