May 17 - Psalms 127-132

“If You, Lord, should keep an account of our sins and treat us accordingly, O Lord, who could stand before You in judgment and claim innocence?” 

(Psalm 130:3-4a)

Life is not fair. Some people have more, some have less. Some people are born into riches, others into poverty. Some people are smarter than others. Some gals are prettier; some guys are more athletic. Life just isn’t fair. So why do we say life should be fair, when we know it never can be?

If we really stop to think about it, what we really mean is that we want things to be better in our lives and the lives of those we love. Honestly, when we complain that life isn’t fair, we seldom mean that we have too much, that we have been more blessed than others. It’s usually that we think we deserve more, we deserve better.

The cold, hard truth is this: We should be thankful that we don’t get what we deserve. If we only got what we deserved, Jesus never would have suffered and died to pay the penalty for our sins. We would never have received forgiveness, or be given second chances to come back to Him time and time again.

What we deserve is to be left dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). What we deserve is eternal damnation (Romans 6:23). What we deserve is to suffer the consequence of every rebellious thought, word and deed. If life were truly fair, we would all be equally condemned, equally miserable, equally lost, equally forever separated from God.

Let’s be thankful that life isn’t fair. As we come to Him today, let’s rejoice that He chose to redeem us and restore us to relationship with Him, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). How truly unfair is that! Then let’s fervently intercede that He will continue to draw many others into that “unfairness,” His kingdom of Truth and Light.