Maybe, Some Losses I Have Today is a Punishment for Self-Righteousness
While I was reading the Book of Job with the "Thru the Bible Commentary" - I really figured out that I may not be so keen on guarding my heart against self-righteousness. There's no doubt that Job was a saved person during the time of the patriarchs. However, Job has continued to show self-righteousness later on when he was receiving more punishment from God. He was moaning at how the wicked tend to live so luxuriously. He was seeing almost everything taken from him.
I can't help but think of the many times I wished somebody wicked had died. I could see how often so many wicked people today live life so great. They can sin all they want and the world praises them. A Christian stumbles into sin and he or she is almost forever jeered. Do you remember when David sinned with Bathsheba that he started losing his trust? However, Ahab sinned all he wanted and the people still loved him. This is the double standard that happens that make me wish that God will strike down such powerful wicked people.
I thought about the late J. Vernon McGee's commentary where he says Hitler was removed in due time. I was severely rebuked by an unbeliever and told, " Are you God to judge that your wicked aunt and that son of hers should die?" I think about how I feel like I might be saying, "God, you're wrong!" Wait, how can I tell God He's wrong when He's perfect and I'm not? Am I a higher court than God? Who am I to become the final judge and to withhold personal forgiveness?
I could say that some punishment I have is for my dirty thoughts and compromise. Then I could think that some losses I have today may be a quest to humble me. It reminds me of how many losses that I had such as losing a huge sum of money to a sleazy person may have humbled me. I wanted to prove how great I can be. Instead, God decided to take it down because I was in a self-righteous pursuit. I believe God allowed me to have failures in order to punish me away from self-righteousness!
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