How We Live Matters to God

April 11, 2019

How We Live Matters to God

The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

2 Peter 3:9

Yesterday we considered Jonah’s rebellion against God. Jonah later repented and went to Nineveh and announced God’s pending judgment against their wickedness. Then God repented. “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jonah 3:10 KJV).

I rejoice that the people of Nineveh came to experience Jonah’s God who is a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. I have known of preachers who stopped at this point. So did the Apostle Paul. Paul responded to those preachers in Romans 6:1-2, “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?”

There are places in scripture where we need to remember that God is a both/and, not an either/or God. As Jonah revealed, God loved the Israelites, and he also loved the people of Nineveh. Jonah noted his God was eager to turn back from destroying people. God cared so much for the people of Nineveh he sent someone to warn them of their impending doom. In another place in scripture, God destroyed the Egyptians as they chased after Moses and the Jews as they escaped through the Red Sea. It brought God no joy to destroy the Egyptian army, but in their wickedness and sin they died.

My Takeaway: “One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. So watch yourselves!” (Luke 17:1-3). Jesus paid the price for our sin. Even so, God still hates sin. 

Do I?

Sē’lah

Alex

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.