Daily Devotionals

'Every Day Light' with Selwyn Hughes

Devotional: September 18th

For Reading and Meditation:
     Ecclesiastes 3:16-17

Ever found yourself feeling frustrated because of the way in which wickedness seems to win over justice? Then you know something of how Solomon feels in the verses before us today. Every generation, throughout time, has had to face this problem. James Russell Lowell put it this way: Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne. Solomon struggles, as no doubt you have done (and perhaps still do), with the fact that in the very place where you would expect to see justice, you find wickedness and corruption prevailing. In the days when I was a pastor, I sometimes went to court with people who had a genuine case to be heard, only to see it broken down by tactics that were dishonest and unjust. I have seen enough injustice in my time to share something of Solomon's cynicism. Are you at this moment a victim of judicial injustice? Then don't allow yourself to become too cynical, for, as Solomon said: "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked ..." Wrong will not continue forever. The day is coming when all corruption and injustice will be called to judgment before the throne of God's truth. But of course, being human, we wish the injustices we have received could be put right - now. God seems to be much more patient than we are, and what we must do is to ask for grace to be patient with the patience of God.

O God my Father, give me the divine perspective on things so that present injustices may be swallowed up in the long-term purposes. Help me see that I will have my day in court - Your court. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.