Why Can't I do That?

I overheard a co-worker the other day talking about a u-haul truck passing him like he was standing still and later saw the same truck pulled over up the road and being glad that he was. This got me thinking of times when I too saw someone passing me by smiling when I saw them pulled over up the road. There are many times when I see someone doing something against the law on the road and wondering where a cop is when you need one. I think to myself that if I did that I would never get away with that. Do these thoughts come out of wanting to see the unlawful punished or that if I can’t get away with it why should others?
There are many times in the Bible when men and women of God wonder why the wicked prosper. The Bible teaches us that calamity falls on the unjust and the just alike, yet sometimes the ungodly prosper while the godly know little but suffering. Job in his response to his friend’s counsel says in Job 21:7 “Why do the wicked live and become old, yes, become mighty in power?” David seems to cry out to God for vengeance on those who prosper while he is oppressed. In psalm 17:10-14; “They have closed up their fat hearts; With their mouths they speak proudly. They have now surrounded us in our steps; They have set their eyes, crouching down to the earth, as a lion is eager to tear his prey, and a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O lord, confront him, cast him down; Deliver my life from the wicked with your sword, with Your hand from men, O Lord, from men of the world who have their portion in life. And those whose belly You fill with hidden treasure. They are satisfied with children, and leave the rest of their possessions for their babes.” Again the Psalmist is calling on God to make things right, but right in God’s eyes or right in our eyes? When we are surrounded by the wicked we call on God to sic’em as David did the passage above when he called on God to confront them and cast them down. It is right to call on God to deliver us from the wicked, but we tend to go further and ask God to have vengeance on these people because they are getting away with something we know that we can’t.
This thought process begins when we are children as we see our siblings doing things behind mom and dad’s backs and we think that they are getting one over on them. I know that when I hear some kids now speak to their parents I think to myself that if I had talked that way I would be picking my teeth up. But many times the thing we do not see is that others aren’t always getting away with what we think they are. I know that my own kids marveled that I was able to find out things that they had done, and I relayed stories to my mother of the things that I did when younger, she was amazed that I was still alive. As we grow in age and in the Lord we are to put these childish thoughts behind us, I Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” but instead we still rejoice when others are caught in there sin, and resent them when they seem to get away with something.
Are these thoughts born out of a desire to see people do right or out of envy to return to the pleasures of the flesh. There are times when I want to speed down an empty stretch of road to see how fast I can get my truck up too, but the fear of a ticket and higher insurance rates keep me from doing so. It seems that as I am thinking these thoughts someone passes me and does the thing that I wanted to do and I look for them to be pulled over up the road, but they are not.
There are people all around us that walk in ways that are in direct disobedience to God, and yet they seem to prosper, and it seems that while we, following the Lord and His will for our lives, do not enjoy the same pleasures they do. Why are we surprised when we see those who are not God’s walking outside of His will? They are just doing what they feel is right, so is there something wrong with them or with us? Since the unrighteous are being true to there nature why are we upset that they are allowed to walk in that nature? Since we are born with a new nature, in Christ, then shouldn’t we be acting according to that new nature? So in fact they are more inline with their nature than we are with ours.
Take heart no one gets away with sin, even if you talk with someone who seems to have everything and act according to their own will there is still something missing, something that those who are born again enjoy, peace, joy, a relationship with the Father, and everlasting life with Him. Galatians 6:7-9 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” We tend to tug at the hem of God’s robe to show Him what others are doing as if He can’t see what is going on this planet that He created. God sees all, and knows all, and He has a timetable that is beyond our understanding.
What of those who we see in church every Sunday and yet we know that there walk at home does not match what others see on Sunday? We say how can God allow them to get away with that? Galatians 6:1 says; “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you be tempted.” So instead of complaining that they are getting away with something right under the nose of God than we should reach out to them in love to bring them back to a right relationship with the Father.
Still this whole problem is our way of thinking. When I mentioned that if I talked to my mother the way I hear some kids do I would be picking my teeth up, goes with this thought. I NEVER WANTED TO! Obedience to God is born out of a desire to serve Him out of love. I had more respect for my mother than to talk to her that way and I am to have more respect for God than to walk in disobedience to Him. Yeah there was that fear of getting slapped for sassing now there is a phrase that you do not hear any more. And there is that fear of God that keeps me inline, but my thinking is to be that I want to be obedient to God out of love. When Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment, He replied; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matt. 22:37 To love God with all your heart is to place nothing in comparison to Him, and will go to great lengths to please and glorify him. To love God with your all your soul is to be ready to give up your life for him and also to live for Him giving him your service. To love God with all your mind, or as others translate as strength, is to employ all our power, gifts, and talents to service of Him. In all this we won’t want to break his commandments and walk in sin, nor desire to get away with something before God and man, for in reality all sin is sin before God.
Jesus added this thought in verse 39; “And the second is like it; You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Are our prayers for those caught or seeming to get away with sin “get’em God” in hopes that God will catch them in their sin? Or are our prayers for them that God would chase after them that they might be saved from their sin. If we truly love God and our neighbor than we won’t be worried if someone is getting away with something that we can’t, but that others and ourselves aren’t sharing in the joy that a right relationship to the Father brings. Our prayers are to be God chase after us, and never let go, pursue us Lord till we are yours.