Does God's patience ever bother you? It does me.
Here's a list of people I wish God would drop a little wrath on:
1. Politicians who put party ahead of country
2. Human Traffickers
3. Wealthy people who care nothing for the poor
4. White Nationalists and other Neo-Nazi hate groups
5. Crazy Christians who get on the news and make us all look bad
Why does God put up with people like this? Wouldn't the world be a better place if they got what they had coming?
I'm tempted to ask God to put his patience on the shelf for a day and take care of business. But I don't pray that prayer, because I'm afraid. What if God said, "Marty, let's make a deal. I'll take your list and I'll give each of them exactly what they deserve, but only if I can add one name to the list -- yours!"
And that's a problem, because I don't want what I deserve. Don't get me wrong; I'm no human trafficker. But I am a sinner, and sinners deserve death and damnation. I don't want that. I don't want what I deserve. I want what Jesus died and rose again to give me -- forgiveness, life and salvation.
So there's my dilemma. God's patience with sinners sometimes annoys me, yet I rely on that patience for myself every day. There are people I want to see get what they have coming, just as long as I'm not one of them. But what if God's patience is all or nothing? And if he were to settle accounts, what if he started with a judgmental hypocrite like me?
In Christ,
Pastor Marty
