People can be so weird. I’ve seen good families fall apart when there’s a slight inheritance to split. My uncles nearly killed each other over a 20 year old mounted dear head after my grandfather died. When you start talking about money, or promotions, or next levels, people start getting greedy and the ugly comes out.
What do you do if someone is cheating you out of what is yours? What do you do if what was promised to you is taken from you? Remember, we talked about that earlier this week. What God says is yours will be yours. Period. But still, sometimes life isn’t fair and what you’ve rightfully earned is denied by those who hold power over you.
How will you handle it when the promotion unfairly goes to someone else? What will you do when the split of the money isn’t fair? What will you do when the contract isn’t honored, your words are twisted, you get sued, you’re overlooked, or you are denied?
YOU TRUST GOD!
You can’t always trust other people, but you can always trust God. I can assure you of this – God sees exactly what is happening. He knows every detail of this situation and he’s already working on the behalf of the one seeking what is right of him.
Is that you? Are you seeking what is right with God?
It’s real easy to get caught up in what you want and what you think you deserve – it’s much harder to truly surrender all that and only desire what God says is right for you.
What if God says the promotion you should rightfully get isn’t what’s right for you – would you trust him with that?
What if God says the money that is owed you isn’t the money he has for you – would you trust him with that?
What if the fair thing isn’t God’s thing – would you trust him with the unfair thing?
Genesis 30 & 31 tells the story of Jacob after he receives the blessing of his father. Life wasn’t easy, even though he was blessed. He dealt with unfair people and unfair situations. He fell in love with a beautiful girl named Rachel. But, in order for Jacob to have Rachel as his wife, he had to work for Rachel’s father Laban. Laban was unfair. He continually changed his mind and tricked Jacob into working harder and longer for him than necessary.
But as Jacob was facing unfair situations with his greedy father-in-law, God was working. I may not know what unfair situation you are facing right now, but I know if you are trusting God for what he says is right, then God is working! And I don’t know about you, but I absolutely LOVE the way God works. He often works in the most unexpected, quirky, behind the scenes ways you would never expect. But there he is working, taking care of those who trust in him.
Jacob had made an agreement with his father-in-law for payment. Jacob would care for all Laban’s flock, and he would only ask for the imperfect sheep to be kept for himself. The imperfect ones were the spotted ones, the striped or speckled ones, or the black sheep. They were the undesirable sheep. Laban agreed to this, knowing it was a great deal for him to get to keep not only the majority, but the best for himself.
But, something crazy started happening – whatever designated undesirable sheep had been declared as Jacob’s, suddenly all the new born sheep would be marked in that way. Jacob was suddenly getting ALL the sheep. As soon as Laban would catch on, he would unfairly change his agreement. But as soon as he would change the designated marking of sheep going to Jacob, then that marking would be on all the next newborn sheep, making them all Jacob’s again. Every time Laban would change his mind, God would change the sheep to make them Jacob’s.
And here’s what Jacob knew in this continually unfair situation with his family – Genesis 31:6-7, Jacob says to his wife,