When things don’t go their way politically—or otherwise—people, many of whom are believers, start bewailing circumstances as if God had died. Let me speak a word to all who will listen: God’s still in complete control of everything. The world isn’t out of control. He’s still providentially at work in His world. Of course things in our homes, in our country and even in our churches haven’t always gone well. We live in a world that has been cursed by sin. We live in a world where unappreciative people go their way never thanking God for the many benefits that they enjoy and, in particular, for the grace that led Him to send us His Son to die for guilty sinners like us. Why should we expect anything from God? We have all too often thought and acted as though we were the masters of our future—even though we may have professed otherwise.
All we should expect is His vengeance for our ingratitude.
And if you think about it what does a country like ours, that has been blessed so greatly, really deserve? Surely, a lot worse than we have yet seen. We have been a rebellious nation, bent on pleasure and willing to do most anything in order to “get ahead” in life. We have been a country of people who spend more on entertainment and sports in a month than they give to the cause of the Lord in a year. We don’t deserve God’s favor. We deserve his punishment. And, if the way that God dealt with people and nations in the Scripture is any indication of how He will deal with us today, we can expect His patience to run out sometime in the future. Eventually, the iniquity of the Amorites was full! Eventually, after a long time, God destroyed Jerusalem and sent the people off into captivity. He is slow to anger—but when His anger burns and boils over, God can sweep nations and peoples aside like so much dust. We dare not treat His longsuffering as if it were indifference. To do so has been the tragic story of many a nation in history.
Not only ought we not to presume upon God’s patience, we ought to implore Him to be merciful to us. Before things go too far, it’s time for Christians to rise up and seek His forgiveness and beg His favor. It isn’t time to bewail situations that we don’t like. Rather, we ought to bewail our sin and seek God’s pardon. Rather, we ought to warn others of the wrath to come and seek to win the lost. Rather, we ought to ask God once again to awaken our country to the faith that so many once had. Rather, we ought to live as we ought before Him and our neighbors as Christians should rather than living like the world.
In short, it is time to repent as a nation, as a church, as individuals, and call upon God to pour out His grace upon us once more. Will you be one who does, Christian? Or will you just go about complaining how bad things have become?
Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!
Books related to counseling others:
- Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
- The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
- How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
- Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!
The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams
Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.
Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies