Thursday; August 29

Have you ever thought about how God dealt with the people who rejected Him and followed idols?  There were times when He brought direct punishment on them, but there were other times when He merely just let them go on their merry way – until they had to deal with the natural consequences of their actions.  Often, when we think about the punishment of God, we think about what He “does”, but one of the scariest things about rejecting God is missing out on the blessings that He adds to life.  In essence, God’s punishment may merely be not intervening into our foolishness.  The New Testament book of Romans chronicles this in an in-depth way including the observation, “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:24-25). 
I don’t know that we have a whole lot of people out offering sacrifices and worshiping “idols” in today’s world, but I believe that when we become focused on worshiping the intelligence of human kind or relying too heavily on our own wisdom we find ourselves in the same boat as the pagans of yesteryear.  When we reject the wisdom of God and rely upon the insight of humanity we are apt to find ourselves having to deal with the natural consequences of unbelief.
Let’s not do this on our own.  With the help of God’s all-powerful and all-knowing nature, we will be able to overcome the natural consequences of human folly.
Think About It!

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