When Doing the Right thing Feels Wrong
It’s amazing how, when you are truly studying God’s word, He speaks to you in so many ways, isn’t it?
Today’s devotion had me reading in the book of 1 Kings 12. This is the story of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. You may be asking “who are these people?” Here’s a quick recap. Rehoboam was one of Solomon’s sons who became King of Israel after Solomon died. Jeroboam was one of Solomon’s chief servants who had to flee to Egypt because God told him he would receive 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel instead of Rehoboam. Solomon, of course, didn’t like this, and wanted to kill Jeroboam. Okay, now that we know who these peoples are, you’re probably asking why this is important.
After Solomon died, Jeroboam returned to make peace with his enemies. He, doing right by God’s chosen people and by God himself, asked Rehoboam to lighten the burden that Solomon had placed on the Israelites. Have you ever tried to make peace with your enemies? How did they respond? Since peace comes from God, I’m going to assume that your enemies wanted nothing to do with it, and instead probably acted worse. That was the case with Rehoboam. Instead of seeking wise counsel, Rehoboam sought the council of the “young” guys, and INCREASED the burden placed on the Israelites.
You may find yourself asking “what does this have to do with the title?” I’m getting there, I promise.
You see, Jeroboam knew he was doing the right thing for God’s people by asking for their burden to be lighter. He wasn’t asking for God’s people to be free from their responsibilities, but just for their load to be a little lighter. I’m going to assume that he was, in no way, using this situation to usurp authority. But how did Rehoboam take it? He took it as an opportunity to exercise his power in an attempt to hide his assumed insecurity. Does any of this chaos sound familiar?
My devotional then posed the question: Have you ever done the good and right thing and suffered for it? Oh, my dude, have I ever?
Sometimes it has felt like my life has been a constant stream of being judged or cast out because I chose to do the right thing. I could go into a million stories (okay, not quite that many), but for the sake of my sanity, we won’t go down that rabbit hole today. I know, from experience, when we’re faced with these situations, Satan starts placing seeds of doubt. I’ve found myself asking “what’s wrong with me?”, “Why does this keep happening?”, “Am I actually doing the WRONG thing instead of the right thing and I just thought I was hearing God the right way?”, Or “was standing up for the right thing the wrong choice because, man this sucks.” I’ve found myself wrestling with these questions for over a year now in response to one specific situation.
Do you know what God spoke to me through this devotion today? He said that, even when our burdens INCREASE when we asked God to decrease them, or even when we’re trying our hardest to make peace with our adversaries, God still has a plan! We can’t know the heart of others. We can’t know how the situations will end. But, we can rest assured that God is good in the grand times and in the bad. He authors our stories, and there’s nothing that we will face today that He won’t use for His glory tomorrow (even if it’s many tomorrows away).
My friend, whatever unfair situations you may encounter in the face of doing the right thing, may you find peace and abide in the fact that “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
-In HIS love,
Chelsae
