September 14, 2012

Corrective Action

In my overview of the Minor Prophets I was struck by how patient God is with people and nations. I’ve always felt that if God applied corrective action sooner rather than later, most of us would learn more quickly from our mistakes. However, it just dawned on me that if God were to strike us with lightening at every sinful infraction our obedience would be out of fear, not out of freewill. My focus on God’s seeming slowness in reacting to sin is apparently misdirected. Sinful issues are all around and as a spectator I want to see God smite the offender. However, what I should be looking for and learning from, is God’s grace, patience and mercy towards the offender.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...


Gail;

-----Before God created this earth and universe He knew Christ would die. (I Pet 1:19-20) It’s like something had gone afoul even then, and this creation is a part of fixing it. From God’s perspective of having experienced it all until now, talk about patience and taking time! But then, He has a lot of time. I particularly appreciate your recognition of the higher place for God’s grace, patience, and mercy. Ephesians 3:10 says God is showing His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places through the church. That’s odd. We can find a lot of churches which act quite loving and proper, but most always it’s towards certain of those within itself or those they are trying to evangelize. Towards others within it, and other churches with different ideas, etc., good behavior begins to drop off. Well, you’ve seen what I mean. And it doesn’t take much looking back into history for seeing some pretty horrible behavior by this church through whom God is showing His manifold wisdom. It all makes me wonder if that wisdom He is showing is precisely His grace and patience and mercy in dealing with sin.

Love you all,
Steve Corey