Taking Chances with God
In Zephaniah 1:12-16, God warned the people about punishment that was coming. He warned a people who had a long history of denying God, being punished and returning to God. They had a short memory. They were willing to take a chance that God would not punish them or that they would not be the generation who was punished.
What kind of chances do you take with God? What kind of thinking takes you to the place that leads you to see how much you can get away with?
1. Believing God thinks like we think. When God says there will be consequences, we better believe Him. Just because nothing bad has happened over a long period of time doesn’t mean that God has forgotten. Although God is long suffering (2 Peter 3:9) there is a point at which God’s patience runs out (2 Peter 3:3-10).
Don’t think think that God has forgotten, God has changed His mind, or that God doesn’t care any more. He has patience to wait for the right time for His will to be accomplished. Don’t make the mistake that just because everything is going well in your life that punishment is not reserved for your future.
2. Believing God is indifferent toward your lifestyle. Don’t think God doesn’t care how you live just because He is loving and merciful and therefore it doesn’t matter if you are faithful. It would have better to never have believed at all (2 Peter 2:21). It’s hard to believe a person believes in God when people see the devil coming out of them. God is not indifferent toward our lives just because there have been no consequences yet (Ecc 8:11).
3. Thinking that there is no punishment to begin with. We have to pick who we are going to serve (Joshua 24:15): God or self, life or death. There is one thing we don’t have the privilege in choosing: the end (2 Thess 1:7-9). The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2).
We must examine our live on a daily basis to keep ourselves from taking chances with God. We always loose when we take such chances. If you are accountable then you will answer for your life at some point.