For Me, says the Lord, Not You.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19

One of the hardest areas in which to trust God is in the matter of justice. When we perceive an injustice, we want to see the guilty party punished. We want justice to prevail, especially if we are the victim. We become impatient if we are not avenged quickly. Yet God warns us that vengeance is not our prerogative. We are to desire justice, but we are not to seek vengeance (Mic. 6:8). When someone offends us, our responsibility is to respond to the offense with forgiveness (Matt. 5:44). God takes the responsibility to see that justice is done. God loves people too much to allow sin to go unchecked. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day

In this post, I have a lot that I could share, but will curb myself.   I have failed so often at this that I am amazed that God didn't install a Reset button on my head.

We live in a microwave society.  Someone does something we want the instant gratification of justice.  A society that wants it so bad and thinks that people should be immediately tried and convicted without due process is beyond horrific.  The percieved guilty have to be transported with bulletproof vests on. Regardless of the offense.  We have countless cell phones recording most everything, believing that video footage is enough to immediately convict.  Nobody has the patience for the law to be worked out.

That's the world today.  As my friend wrote in his book "Living in a World Without Conscious", it's our world today.

We see constant road rage.  We see people rear ending others because of nothing less than being distracted by a phone.  People get out and if possible, attack the person who caused it. 

Governments look the other way.  It feeds their agenda.  People consumed by things like this pay little attention to what their Government is doing.  A smoke screen.

But that's not the crux of the issue.  Sin is the root cause of the problems in this world.  Not this country, this world.

Our natural response to evil rearing its ugly head is to want justice now. 

I used to have a very triggered response to certain things in life.  It certainly took God working in me to handle me.  After a semi truck ran a red light and hit me, well, that was when I knew what rage was.  For the longest time after I was recovered enough to drive, I had rage against pretty much all truck drivers.  I blamed them all for what I was put through. Yet, while I was enraged, it scared me.  It took a work of Jesus to remove that rage. 
In other things in my life, it's been a series of learned lessons.  Most people that I know don't see their own struggles when it comes to wanting instant justice.  They don't see it because they are not remotely trying to fight it.

Scripture tells us to pray for those who persecute us.  To leave room for the wrath of God.  While our situation may or may not improve, there is one unchanging truth.

Although someone may have wronged us or someone else, or even a group of someone else's.  The truth of Scripture is that God is not willing that any should perish but that all would be saved.

It's not about the justice we crave. 
It's about the mercy and grace of God.

In this, remember, before you get all worked up in what I just said, in this God WILL hold people accountable.

Nobody, nobody, 'gets away' with things before the all-knowing, all-seeing, God of this Universe.  If God had vetted out justice as we see people crave today, guess what?  90 percent of the New Testament wouldn't be here today.  Saul's story of his conversion to being a Christian would have ended with being struck dead, not struck blind. 

Are there serial killers in Heaven? Yes.
Are there mass murders in Heaven? Yes.

Guess what.  The potential for every single form of sin is possible in everyone.

Sin has not been diluted over the centuries.  The same justice that people cry out for against someone else is the same that we deserve ourselves.  Scripture says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  The wages of sin is death.  We all stood condemned to die, to go to Hell, yet because of the grace and mercy of God He made a way to save you and I and everyone else who has lived.

"I am not a bad person! I am not like that murder!" You say.  Guess what. Jesus said if you thought it, you did it. If you wished someone dead, you tried, convicted and executed them in your heart.

So leave room for Jesus to do only what He can do.  That person whom did what they did, just might have the heart of a great evangelist in them, awaiting a rebirth in Christ to be let out.  They may never see freedom outside a jail cell but that won't matter. That will be their mission field.

Let go of your anger and hate.  It eats you alive from the inside.  You granting people the freedom to live rent free in your heart and mind only hurts you. It also shuts out your prayer life.  It puts up barriers between you and God.

So today...let go. Bring freedom and refreshing to your soul by giving those desires to Jesus to handle.  Your relationship with Jesus is beyond more important than your desire for justice.