40|50 Project: 40 Days To Heal A Nation’s Racial DivideSample

Day 19: God’s Justice

“Why did you let them get away with murder?” I ask the Lord about the white men who killed my father’s father and the local police who covered it up in Georgia during the Civil Rights era. “They were able to live full lives with no consequences.”

“Why do you think there were no consequences?” God returns. “Nobody gets away with anything,” 

I want justice, and my grandmother, who was widowed with four sons at the age of twenty-nine, has assured me that she “forgave them a long time ago and that I must do the same.” 

But I’m angry, and I’m ready to go out and find any perpetrators still alive and their descendants to hold them accountable. What do we do with our righteous anger and desire for justice? God wires us to long for justice and to get angry when we are treated poorly so that we can tell folks to stop hurting us. Our healthy reaction to being wronged should be anger. 

Yet, Grandmama knows something about God’s justice. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord in Romans 12:19. This is what the Lord wants me to know as He reiterates that no one gets away with sin. He sees all. We are to seek justice when lives are taken, and we can still rest assured that even if it seems like someone has ‘gotten away with murder’, they have not. Like all of us, they still must answer to God. Instead of bitterness and vengeance, we are instructed to overcome evil with good.  

PRAYER

Father, please help me today to forgive each person who has wronged me and to cease seeking revenge. Vengeance is Yours. You delight in bringing justice. I do repent on their behalf and ask that they’ll repent before having to suffer further consequences. I honestly express my anger to you today and release all bitterness and unforgiveness. I want to be free. Thank You for Your love and protection, in Jesus’s Name, Amen.