Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / March 5 - When Life Feels Unfair
Transcript
- 0:02Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
- 0:06rooted in scripture and relevant for today, March 5th, when life
- 0:11feels unfair. Have you ever looked at your
- 0:14life and thought, this isn't fair?
- 0:16You tried your best, you made the right choices, you stayed
- 0:19kind when others were rude, and yet somehow you're the one
- 0:22hurting. It can feel confusing and
- 0:25frustrating, especially when it seems like others are getting
- 0:28away with things while you're left picking up the pieces.
- 0:32Proverbs Chapter 11, verse 27 says whoever diligently seeks
- 0:37good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it.
- 0:41That verse reminds us that what we pursue matters.
- 0:44Seeking good isn't just about random acts of kindness.
- 0:48It's a daily decision to choose integrity, to choose obedience,
- 0:52to choose God's way even when it's harder.
- 0:55And God promises that kind of heart attracts his favor.
- 0:59But then we read Job chapters 8 to 10 and we see a man who was
- 1:03upright and still suffering deeply.
- 1:06In Job chapter 8, verses 5 to 6, his friend tells him, if you
- 1:10will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are
- 1:13pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and
- 1:17restore your rightful habitation.
- 1:20That sounds simple. Seek God and everything will be
- 1:23restored. But Jobs reality was more
- 1:26complicated than that. In Job chapter 10 verse three,
- 1:31Job cries out to God. Does it seem good to you to
- 1:34oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs
- 1:37of the wicked? That's an honest question.
- 1:40Job wasn't being disrespectful, he was being real.
- 1:44He couldn't understand why someone who loved God would go
- 1:47through so much pain. Sometimes life doesn't follow
- 1:50our expectations. You can seek good and still face
- 1:53loss. You can pray and still wait.
- 1:56You can obey and still struggle. Seeking God doesn't mean life
- 1:59will always be easy. It means you are choosing to
- 2:03anchor yourself in him instead of in bitterness.
- 2:05When life feels unfair, the temptation is to stop seeking
- 2:09good, to say what's the point? But Proverbs reminds us that
- 2:13diligently seeking good leads to favor.
- 2:16Not always instant results, but God's presence, his nearness,
- 2:20his sustaining grace. And that favor is deeper than
- 2:24temporary success. Like Job, you are allowed to
- 2:27bring your hard questions to God.
- 2:29You don't have to pretend you're fine.
- 2:31God can handle your confusion. He would rather you wrestle with
- 2:35him then walk away from him. Maybe right now you're in a
- 2:38season that doesn't make sense. Instead of giving up, keep
- 2:41seeking, Keep praying, keep choosing what is right.
- 2:46Trust that even when you don't see it, God sees your heart.
- 2:49He has not overlooked your faithfulness.
- 2:51Unfair moments do not cancel God's goodness.
- 2:54They do not erase His plans. They do not mean He has
- 2:57forgotten you. They are chapters, not
- 2:59conclusions. Let's pray.
- 3:02Heavenly Father, when life feels unfair and confusing, help me
- 3:05not to give up on You. Teach me to keep seeking what is
- 3:09good and to trust that You see my heart.
- 3:12Give me courage to bring my honest questions to You, knowing
- 3:15you can handle them. Remind me that your favor and
- 3:18your presence are with me even when I don't understand what's
- 3:21happening in Jesus name, Amen. What if the most important
- 3:26question in your life deserves more than a shallow answer?
- 3:29Does God Exist Is a powerful, thought provoking series that
- 3:33explores reality, meaning and truth through reason, evidence,
- 3:37human experience and scripture without preaching pressure or
- 3:41assumptions. Book 1, Something from Nothing,
- 3:44confronts the mystery of existence itself and asks why
- 3:47anything exists at all. Book 2, The Cause behind the
- 3:50Cosmos, examines the origin of the universe and whether it
- 3:53points beyond itself. Book 3, Design or Accident,
- 3:57wrestles with order and complexity.
- 4:00Are they products of chance or intelligence?
- 4:02Book 4, The Moral Signature, explores why objective right and
- 4:05wrong may require a source beyond human opinion.
- 4:09Book 5, The God We Cannot Escape, considers conscience,
- 4:12longing, and humanity's persistent awareness of God.
- 4:15Book 6, From Reason to Revelation, asks whether the God
- 4:19who exists would also speak and Book 7, Denying God, examines
- 4:23the internal tensions of unbelief and the deeper
- 4:25implications of rejecting the divine.
- 4:28Written in clear, accessible language for seekers, skeptics,
- 4:31students, and curious minds, this series invites honest
- 4:34reflection and careful thinking. If you're ready to explore the
- 4:37question seriously, order Does God Exist?
- 4:41On Amazon Or visit prayerscripts.org today.
- 4:45Now I invite you to spend time with God in today's three-year
- 4:48Bible reading plan. Proverbs Chapter 11 verse 27
- 4:54World English Bible He who diligently seeks good seeks
- 4:57favor, but he who searches after evil, it shall come to him.
- 5:01Job Chapters 8 to 10 World English Bible Then build at the
- 5:05shoe height. Answered How long will you speak
- 5:07these things? Shall the words of your mouth be
- 5:09a mighty wind? Does God pervert justice, or
- 5:12does the Almighty pervert righteousness?
- 5:15If your children have sinned against Him, He has delivered
- 5:18them into the hand of their disobedience.
- 5:20If you want to seek God diligently make your
- 5:23supplication to the Almighty. If you were pure and upright,
- 5:26surely now He would awaken for you, and make the habitation of
- 5:30your righteousness prosperous. Though your beginning was small,
- 5:33yet your latter end would greatly increase.
- 5:36Please inquire of past generations.
- 5:38Find out about the learning of their fathers, For we are but of
- 5:41yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a
- 5:44shadow. Shall they not teach you, tell
- 5:46you, and utter words out of their heart?
- 5:49Can the papyrus grow up without mire?
- 5:51Can the rushes grow without water?
- 5:53While it is yet in its greenness not cut down, it Withers before
- 5:57any other read. So are the paths of all who
- 5:59forget God. The hope of the godless man will
- 6:02perish. Whose confidence will break
- 6:04apart? Whose trust is a spider's web.
- 6:06He will lean on his house, but it will not stand.
- 6:09He will cling to it, but it will not endure.
- 6:11He is green before the sun. His shoots go out along his
- 6:15garden. His roots are wrapped around the
- 6:17rock pile. He sees the place of stones.
- 6:19If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him,
- 6:22saying, I have not seen you. Behold, this is the joy of his
- 6:26way out of the earth. Others will spring.
- 6:29Behold, God will not castaway A blameless man, neither will He
- 6:32uphold the evildoers. He will still fill your mouth
- 6:35with laughter, your lips with shouting.
- 6:37Those who hate you will be clothed with shame.
- 6:40The tent of the wicked will be no more than Job answered.
- 6:43Truly, I know that it is so. But how can man be just with God
- 6:47if he is pleased to contend with him?
- 6:49He can't answer him one time in 1000.
- 6:52God is wise in heart and mighty in strength, who has hardened
- 6:56himself against him and prospered.
- 6:58He removes the mountains, and they don't know it when he
- 7:00overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth out of its
- 7:04place, its pillars tremble. He commands the sun and it
- 7:07doesn't rise and seals up the stars.
- 7:09He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves
- 7:12of the sea. He makes the bear Orion and the
- 7:15Pleiades and the rooms of the South.
- 7:17He does great things past finding out, yes, marvelous
- 7:20things without number. Behold, he goes by me, and I
- 7:23don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't
- 7:26perceive him. Behold, he snatches away.
- 7:29Who can hinder him? Who will ask him, What are you
- 7:31doing? God will not withdraw His anger.
- 7:34The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.
- 7:36How much less will I answer Him and choose my words to argue
- 7:39with Him. Though I were righteous, yet I
- 7:41wouldn't answer Him. I would make supplication to my
- 7:44judge. If I had called and He had
- 7:46answered me, yet I wouldn't believe that He listened to my
- 7:49voice. For He breaks me with a storm
- 7:51and multiplies my wounds without 'cause He will not allow me to
- 7:55catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
- 7:58If it is a matter of strength, behold, He is mighty.
- 8:01If of justice, who says He will summon me?
- 8:04Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me.
- 8:06Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.
- 8:09I am blameless. I don't respect myself, I
- 8:11despise my life. It is all the same.
- 8:14Therefore I say, he destroys the blameless and the wicked.
- 8:17If the scourge kills suddenly, he will mock at the trial of the
- 8:20innocent. The earth is given into the hand
- 8:23of the wicked. He covers the faces of its
- 8:25judges. If not he, then who is it?
- 8:28Now my days are swifter than a runner.
- 8:30They flee away, they see no good.
- 8:33They have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that
- 8:36swoops on the prey. If I say I will forget my
- 8:39complaint, I will put off my sad face and cheer up.
- 8:42I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me
- 8:45innocent. I will be condemned.
- 8:47Why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow and
- 8:51cleanse my hands with Lye, yet you will plunge me in the ditch.
- 8:55My own clothes will abhor me, for he is not a man as I am,
- 8:59that I should answer him, that we should come together in
- 9:01judgement. There is no umpire between us
- 9:04that might lay his hand on us both.
- 9:06Let him take his rod away from me.
- 9:09Let his terror not make me afraid.
- 9:11Then I would speak and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.
- 9:15My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my
- 9:18complaint. I will speak in the bitterness
- 9:20of my soul. I will tell God.
- 9:22Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
- 9:25Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should
- 9:28despise the work of your hands and smile on the counsel of the
- 9:31wicked? Do you have eyes of flesh, or do
- 9:33you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of
- 9:36mortals, or your years as man's years, that you inquire after my
- 9:40iniquity and search after my sin?
- 9:43Although you know that I am not wicked, there is no one who can
- 9:46deliver out of your hand. Your hands have framed me and
- 9:49fashioned me all together, yet you destroy me.
- 9:52Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay.
- 9:55Will you bring me into dust again?
- 9:57Haven't you poured me out like milk and curdled me like cheese?
- 10:00You have clothed me with skin and flesh and knit me together
- 10:03with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and
- 10:06loving kindness. Your visitation has preserved my
- 10:09spirit, yet you hid these things in your heart.
- 10:12I know that this is with you. If I sin, then you mark me.
- 10:15You will not acquit me from my iniquity.
- 10:17If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will
- 10:21not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace and
- 10:24conscious of my affliction. If my head is held high, you
- 10:27hunt me like a lion. Again.
- 10:29You show yourself powerful to me.
- 10:31You renew your witnesses against me and increase your indignation
- 10:34on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
- 10:37Why then have you brought me out of the womb?
- 10:39I wish I had given up the Spirit and know I had seen me.
- 10:42I should have been as though I had not been.
- 10:44I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
- 10:47Aren't my day's view stop? Leave me alone that I may find a
- 10:50little comfort before I go. Where I will not return from.
- 10:53To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death.
- 10:56The land dark as midnight. Of the shadow of death without
- 10:59any order. Where the light is as midnight.
- 11:03Thanks for joining us on Bible Chat, where Scripture meets
- 11:06everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
- 11:10you, share it with a friend and be sure to follow the podcast so
- 11:13you won't miss the next conversation.
- 11:15Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope, and
- 11:19walking daily with Jesus.