Quote from Forum Archives on August 21, 2008, 10:52 am

Posted by: wrather <wrather@...>

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08.21.08

The Patience of God - Part II

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My
son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you
are rebuked by Him for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every
son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with
sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are
without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are
illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who
corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in
subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days
chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be
partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the
present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. - Hebrews 12:5-11.

As I pointed out in part one, God has great patience with us, far more than
we as humans have for each other. However, God does sometimes come to an end
of allowing sinful behavior. If you are a child of God, if you really belong
to Him, He will not allow you to walk in sin indefinitely. The writer of
Hebrews makes it clear that God will discipline, chasten us, if we belong to
Him.

God has been intervening in the affairs of human beings from the beginning
of our existence to bring about correction. We are familiar with at least
some of the more famous incidents - incidents such as Adam and Eve being
kicked out of the Garden of Eden after they sinned. We remember hearing
about Sodom and Gomorrah being utterly destroyed for their wickedness and
the lack of righteousness. Of course, we remember hearing about the flood
that destroyed all but Noah and his family because as we are told in Genesis
6:5-8, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and
He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, 'I will destroy man whom I
have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing
and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord."

Then there was King Belshazzar (Daniel 5) who had the vessels from the house
of God brought to a great feast where the King defiled the vessels and made
toasts to false gods. This was the time when the hand mysteriously appeared
and wrote on the wall saying essentially that the King was finished. Daniel
interpreted the writing and that same night Belshazzar was killed and Darius
the Mede took over the kingdom.

In the New Testament, there is the story of the rich farmer or rich fool who
had the huge crop and decided to horde his harvest by building larger barns.
He was just going to keep it all for himself and kick back and take it easy
for the rest of his life. In Luke 12:20-21 we are told, "But God said to
him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will
those things be which you have provided?' So is he who lays up treasure for
himself, and is not rich toward God."

I think that it is clear that we would be fools to ignore what God wants in
our lives. Yes, His patience is far greater than ours as human beings;
however, at times God must intervene. If you are knowingly involved in sin,
I urge you to stop testing the patience of God. Because God will chasten
you, correct you, at some point in time if necessary. You can spare
yourself, your family, and everyone in your circle of influence much pain by
living in the center of God's will for your life. Are you living as God
wants you to live? If not, now is the time to change, now is the time to
make a course correction, now is the time move back to where God wants you
to be.

Copyright © 2008. Ed Wrather. Permission is given for use of the devotionals
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