Divine Encouragement

Yesterday I was talking with my boss and telling him about my plans for the summer. I told him about possibly going to Colorado Springs for an internship and he said something like, "I hope you get that, you're a good kid you deserve it." It made me think. Do we as humans ever have the right to think we deserve good based on our righteousness? Of course God does not love us to a greater degree because his love is not based on us (that makes me happy by the way). So initially I answered the question with a no. The rain falls on the righteous and the wicked.

But then I realized that the Psalms seems to imply otherwise. There are many times when the Psalms talk about the success of or blessings given to the righteous and the destruction of the wicked. I've heard that the Proverbs are general truths and that they won't necessarily occur in every instance (this is not to detract from the absolute truth of them). I assume this is true with the Psalms. But even if this is the case it would still happen sometimes. In other words, the righteous would be blessed and the wicked will fail sometimes. It certainly seems to imply that our blessings or lack thereof are dependent on our actions at least some of the time.

In typing this out another answer has occurred to me. Perhaps the Psalms are like a good persuasive college essay should be. We are taught in college to write papers which highlight whatever it is you are wanting to convince the audience of, and not to mention that which would detract from your point or put your conclusion in a bad light. Maybe the Psalms are merely saying good happens to good people and bad happens to bad people, without mentioning that in fact bad happens to good people and good happens to bad people.

If this is the case one can't help but ask, how can God be so misleading? It seems as if he is leaving part of the truth out to make a point. Isn't that somehow wrong and therefore go against his perfect nature?

Heaven forbid I and come down with an absolute statement and risk being wrong. I don't care though. This is what I have concluded -- at least temporarily. I don't believe God is being misleading. He is telling us what we need to hear. He is encouraging us. Good things do happen to good people and bad to bad. While this isn't the ultimate reason for being righteous it certainly helps in persuading us to be upright. If he mentioned the other side of the coin he knows we would be discouraged from the righteous path. See, no worries, God knows what he's doing.

Having said that, I will still remember that God's ways are not ours. My mind is extremely constrained.