I really enjoyed today’s Tozer devotional -
The Holy Spirit in Psalm 37:1 admonishes us to beware of irritation in our religious lives: “Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong.”
It’s easy to be furious when we feel that someone is getting away with something, but that particular brand of anger can only be felt when we allow ourselves to forget what we are “getting away” with, thanks to God’s mercy and grace. The only reason we are justified is because of Jesus’ sacrificial death; not because of anything we did. So the rain falls on the just and the unjust – Matthew 5:45. It’s just that we’ve been given an umbrella.
“we’ve been given an umbrella.” – it’s a cute comment, but you need to remember the meaning of rain to Jesus’ original hearer in the arid Middle East. While rain might be a nuisance to you, it is a blessing to anyone who lives in the desert.
Good point!
We’d also miss the point if we tried to differentiate the benefits the rain would have for either group (if we can even divide them into groups-just and unjust). Sometimes I am just and sometimes I am unjust. But either way, God benefits me with rain.
True. I think the real key is to avoid short term thinking. Just because something seems good doesn’t mean it is beneficial in the long run. For example, surveys of lottery winners several years later often find them more unhappy than before they won. Then too, the older I get the more I find these irritations are a product of self-centered thinking – focusing on the specific, immediate impact on me and my plans instead of trying to see God’s plan in action and, as Henry Blackaby put so well in his book Experiencing God, join Him in His work.