Romans 9.22-23 22 What if God, although choosing to show
his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his
wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of
his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for
glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from
the Gentiles? (NIV)
If there is one thing that confounds most men with God,
it is their angst over God’s patience; men
want revenge and they want it now. God’s patience is immense and that fact doesn’t
satisfy men who, although they would never ask for it, seem to want God to take
away their freewill and in one final great act of sovereignty, fix this world
for good. Of course good to them
means getting rid of what they deem bad,
not realizing that all of us are bad and no one deserves the mercy that God
shows in His great patience.
It is my firm belief that most people have some sort of troubling
issue in life that really bugs them and they can’t seem to get rid of it, and
they long for someone or something to take it away. Their, ‘what if’, revolves
around getting rid of the thing that bothers them the most.
Paul addresses the ‘what if’ with the two questions
above: What if God… bore with great
patience the object of His wrath…? And, what
if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His
mercy…?
Paul isn’t asking the questions in the same way we men ask
the questions. Paul states, in question form, the answer to most people’s issue
with the what if; Paul states that we
men (and women) must trust God that He knows what He is doing in our lives and
in the lives of the people we deem most worthy for destruction. Our solution to
the problem is get rid of it right now:
life would be better if ______________
(fill in the blank) wasn’t around. God’s solution is to exercise great
patience (perhaps in divine desire that the object of His wrath may repent and
become an object of His mercy.)
What I get from this is to trust God and give over to Him,
no matter how many times I must, the issues of my life trusting that He will
either see me through them, or somehow will change my attitude toward them. I
just might learn some patience in the process as well.
And my belief will be tested. So will yours. The
end-result of God’s testing is this: “…
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can
never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who
through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation
that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of
trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater
worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen
him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him
and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving
the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1.3-9)
There is a reason for our season and the result is glorious peace. Father, may
it be so in my life. Amen.
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