Life's not fair

We've all heard the saying "Life's not fair." Well it certainly is true! But... as you might not have thought, it's a good thing for us it isn't! =D
What's fair?... You're a sinner. Is it 'fair' that God was gracious and merciful to us and saved us from our sin? Is it fair to Him for us to reject Him for so long and then when life gets tough we realize how much we need Him and decide to except Him?
Let's talk about Jesus. Was it fair for Him to be hanged on a cross, even though He never sinned in His life?! Think about it though... God had a plan. If Jesus hadn't died and payed the price for our sin, and rose again on the third day, would we have the opportunity God has given us, to know Him and be free from sin and live eternally with Him?
What is fair? I'll tell ya what's fair. It's fair for us to live in our sin... or rather be dead in our sin, and die and live in Hell forever permanently separated from God. That's what's fair! We can never do anything on our own to reach God's standard of holiness. BUT! Because God is loving towards us, He sent His Son to die for our sins, that we may live eternally with Him in Heaven!! Aren't you glad life's not fair!! =D
We had an AWESOME lesson tonight! I was totally pumped. It was about salvation. Not for unbelievers, but for believers. It was in I Peter 1:4-9. We have salvation, and we should be so excited, thankful, grateful, and ecstatic about it we can't explain it! Just the very thought that we are saved should bring joy to our lives. I was a little blow away when Mr. Long said that God would honor, praise and glorify us. It was confusing to me because I was thinking, "Hey, wait a minute... that doesn't sound right. We should be glorifying Him, not the other way around. For what are we? Poor sinners who can't stand on one foot without God in our lives. We didn't save ourselves, God saved us and we've certainly don't nothing worthy of praise." Well getting back to my point earlier, life's not fair! =) If we follow God here on earth, do His will, and live for Him, it says in the Bible that we will get crowns, glorified bodies like Christ, and God will say to us, "Well done my good and faithful servant." If that's not motivation to live for our Lord Jesus Christ than I don't know what is!! But it definitely shouldn't be because we want rewards, but because we know what God has done for us and we want to serve Him, even though there is no way we will ever be able to repay all that He's done for us! It reminded Mr. Long of the song, Joy Unspeakable... you all know it, so did we. So we began singing, and I could tell some of the others were as excited as I was by this point! =)
He also brought up a point that people think we're absolutely nuts when we can't stop talking about Him, His Word and our salvation. It's especially confusing to unbelievers when a person is going through a very difficult time and continue to praise God. He gave a perfect example in Acts 5:40-42, when Peter and some of the other apostles were beaten for preaching the Word of God. They praised God departing "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." Wow. They were still praising God after being beaten for doing what they were told to!
On the way home tonight we were listening to the radio and this song came on, I heard it and was like, "Oh my goodness! This goes right along with tonights lesson!" Hopefully this will help you to remember that God has a plan for what's happening in your life. Don't remember that "there's a plan for everything..." Remember that God has a plan for everything, and that makes it much more comforting. He will never leave you or forsake you. And when you hear someone saying "life's not fair" say "You're right! Dog gonit, life's NOT fair, Praise God for that!!" Then look at their face... this maybe a perfect opportunity to witness.... God has a plan for everything...