When Injustice Wounds Us, God Restores Us
Key Scripture: Micah 6:8
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
INTRODUCTION
Today I want to speak about something that is at the very heart of God’s character:
Our God is the God of justice.
There are things in life that we don’t understand. Things that don’t make sense. Things that are deeply unfair.
Sometimes injustice is something we read about in the news. But sometimes it enters our own lives, our families, and our stories—and changes us forever.
I know something about that.
I want to share part of my story today, not because the story is about me, but because I want to testify about what God can do with the wounds caused by injustice.
When I was eleven years old, my seven-year-old sister was kidnapped and brutally murdered.
The person who did it was never found. We were told that it may have been the work of a serial killer.
I was eleven.
She was seven.
She wasn’t only my sister.
She was my buddy.
And suddenly she was gone.
I was too young to understand the reality of such brutality. I couldn’t understand how something so terrible could happen to someone I loved so much.
And that injustice didn’t only take my sister.
In many ways, it took my childhood too.
I had to grow up quickly. I began to feel that the world was not safe. I felt that I had to protect myself because nobody could guarantee that I would be safe.
I lost trust in people.
I lost trust in the world.
And underneath all of that was a question I carried for many years: Where was justice?
Someone had taken my sister.
Someone had destroyed a family.
And nobody was held accountable.
There was no earthly resolution.
There was no answer that could make sense of what had happened.
And I was angry.
I wanted justice.
And underneath my desire for justice was another painful feeling:
helplessness.
I couldn’t save my sister.
I was only eleven years old.
But a child can carry a burden much bigger than a child should ever have to carry.
And I carried that burden for a long time.
- GOD IS THE GOD OF JUSTICE — HE SEES
The Bible tells us something incredibly important: God sees.
When we cannot see justice, God sees.
When nobody knows the whole story, God knows.
When a crime goes unsolved, God knows.
When someone escapes earthly judgment, they do not escape God’s judgment.
Deuteronomy 32:4 says:
“He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.”
Psalm 89:14 says:
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.”
Justice is not simply something God occasionally does.
JUSTICE IS PART OF WHO GOD IS.
God does not look at evil and say, “It doesn’t matter.”
He does not look at suffering and say, “I didn’t notice.”
He sees.
He knows.
He cares.
And ultimately, every injustice will come before the perfect Judge.
But when the Bible speaks about justice, it doesn’t only speak about punishment for wrongdoing.
It also tells God’s people to practice justice.
Isaiah 1:17 says:
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
God repeatedly tells His people to look after those who are vulnerable.
The poor.
The widow.
The orphan.
The oppressed.
Those who have no voice.
Those who are suffering.
Justice in God’s eyes is not simply asking:
“Who deserves punishment?”
It is also asking:
“Who needs help?”
“Who needs protection?”
“Who has been forgotten?”
“What can I do?”
And this is important because justice is not separate from God’s command to love.
Micah 6:8 says:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
God wants us to reflect His character.
He is the God who sees the vulnerable, and He calls His people to see them too.
But there is another side to injustice.
Injustice doesn’t only affect circumstances.
Injustice can affect the human heart.
And I know this personally.
- INJUSTICE WOUNDS THE HUMAN HEART
When my sister was murdered, I lost more than my sister.
I lost my sense of safety.
I lost trust.
I lost part of my childhood.
I became fearful.
I felt that I had to protect myself.
And I carried anger because I wanted justice.
I wanted the person responsible to be found.
I wanted someone to answer for what had happened.
But there was no answer.
There was no earthly justice.
And when justice doesn’t come, the heart can become trapped between grief and anger, fear and helplessness.
We can begin to believe:
“People cannot be trusted.”
“The world is dangerous.”
“I have to protect myself.”
“I cannot let my guard down.”
And sometimes the desire for justice can slowly become a desire for revenge.
This was something I had to learn to surrender.
Romans 12:19 says:
“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
That verse became deeply meaningful to me.
Because I wanted justice.
And I was angry that justice had not come.
But God began teaching me: “You do not have to carry this. I am the Judge. You can trust Me.”
Surrendering injustice to God does not mean saying that what happened was acceptable.
It does not mean forgetting.
It does not mean denying the pain.
It does not mean that earthly justice is unimportant.
It means:
“God, I acknowledge that this was wrong. I acknowledge that it hurt me. But I trust You with the final judgment. I refuse to allow this injustice to control the rest of my life.”
There is a difference between seeking justice and living for revenge.
We can seek what is right while leaving vengeance to God.
We can tell the truth without hatred.
We can establish boundaries without bitterness.
We can protect people without becoming consumed by anger.
And we can say:
“Lord, You deal with what I cannot deal with.”
Psalm 55:22 says:
“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.”
Cast your cares.
Not carry them.
Cast them.
Give them to Him.
There are burdens we were never designed to carry.
And some of us are carrying burdens that God is saying:
“Child, give this burden to Me.”
Maybe it is an injustice from years ago.
Maybe someone betrayed you.
Maybe you were falsely accused.
Maybe someone hurt you deeply.
Maybe you are still waiting for an apology.
Maybe you are still waiting for someone to acknowledge what happened.
God sees.
And He says:
“Give it to Me.”
For me, this became part of healing.
I had to surrender not only what had happened, but also my desire to control the outcome.
I had to surrender the anger.
I had to surrender the questions.
I had to surrender the desire for revenge.
I had to surrender the injustice itself.
I had to say:
“God, I don’t understand why this happened. I don’t understand why justice did not come. But I choose to trust You.”
And something changed.
God began restoring what fear had taken.
He taught me to trust Him.
And through that relationship with Him, He began teaching me that I could trust people again.
He restored my sense of safety.
The world had taught me:
“You are not safe.”
God began teaching me:
“I am with you.”
The injustice remained part of my history, but it no longer had to control my future.
And I learned something very important:
Bitterness is not justice.
Hebrews 12:15 warns us:
“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
God does not want the person who hurt us to continue hurting us through what we carry inside.
He wants freedom.
He wants healing.
He wants us to live again.
And that leads us to something beautiful.
What happens when we surrender our brokenness to God?
God can redeem what was broken.
- GOD REDEEMS WHAT WAS BROKEN AND USES OUR STORY TO BRING GOOD TO OTHERS
One of the most powerful examples of this in Scripture is Joseph.
Joseph experienced terrible injustice. His own brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery.
Yet later, Joseph was able to say to them:
Genesis 50:20:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
Notice what Joseph did NOT say.
He did not say, “What you did was good.”
He did not say, “It didn’t matter.”
He said:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”
There is a huge difference.
The Bible does not say that everything that happens is good.
What happened to my sister was not good.
Murder is not good.
Injustice is not good.
Loss is not good.
But God is so powerful that He can bring good even out of what was terrible.
Romans 8:28 is often expressed in this same truth: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God didn’t cause the evil in my story.
But He did not allow the evil to have the final word.
He gave me hope.
He gave me a future.
He restored my ability to trust.
And He gave my life a purpose that I could never have imagined when I was eleven years old.
Today I am a psychotherapist.
I have the privilege of helping people who have experienced injustice, trauma and loss and who are trying to recover from the impact of those experiences.
I also have the privilege of helping survivors like my sister.
I cannot change what happened to my sister.
I cannot give her back her childhood.
I cannot undo the tragedy.
But I can allow God to use what happened to me to help someone else find healing.
And this is where I see the beauty of 2 Corinthians 1:3–4:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
God comforted me.
God restored me.
And now, in different ways, I can offer comfort and support to others.
Our pain does not have to be wasted.
God can take what wounded us and use it to develop compassion for others.
The person who knows what it is like to be afraid can become someone who helps another person feel safe.
The person who knows what it is like to lose can become someone who sits with another person in their grief.
The person who has experienced injustice can become someone who stands with people who have no voice.
And this brings us back to the two greatest commandments.
Jesus said in Matthew 22:37–40:
“Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment.39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
If we love God, we begin to care about what He cares about.
And God cares about people.
He cares about the poor.
He cares about the vulnerable.
He cares about the lonely.
He cares about those who have been forgotten.
He cares about our brothers and sisters.
Galatians 6:10 says:
“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
So what does that look like?
It means we notice the person who is struggling.
We help the person who is in need.
We stand beside the person who is grieving.
We care for those who are vulnerable.
We support our brothers and sisters.
We speak up when someone has no voice.
We become God’s hands and feet.
Perhaps this is one of the greatest ways God can redeem a painful story:
God takes someone who has been wounded and makes them an instrument of His love toward someone else.
CONCLUSION
So today, I want us to remember three things.
First: God is the God of justice.
He sees.
He knows.
He cares.
No injustice is invisible to Him.
Second: injustice wounds the human heart.
It can create fear, anger, helplessness, loss of trust and bitterness.
But we don’t have to carry that burden forever.
We can surrender it to God.
“It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Third: God can bring good from what was broken and use us to help others.
What happened does not have to have the final word.
God can heal.
God can restore.
God can give hope and purpose.
And God can use our lives to help others.
So perhaps today there is something you need to surrender.
An injustice.
An old wound.
Anger.
Fear.
The desire for revenge.
A need for someone to acknowledge what happened.
Give it to God.
Let Him carry what you cannot carry.
And then ask Him:
“Lord, how can You use my life to bring Your love, mercy and justice to someone else?”
Because we are not only called to receive God’s mercy.
We are called to become instruments of it.
We are not only called to experience God’s justice.
We are called to practice justice.
And we are not only called to be healed.
We are called to become His hands and feet in a wounded world.
As Micah 6:8 reminds us:
“Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”
May God help us to trust Him with the injustices we cannot change, to allow Him to heal the wounds we cannot heal ourselves, and to use our lives to bring hope, mercy, compassion and justice to others.
God bless you all,