Daily Devotions
When God Gives Us Up
Reading for November 24th: Romans 1-3
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity...
Romans 1:22-24
Have you ever played tug of war with a little child? You could easily pull them toward you, but to make it interesting you play along and intentionally make it a stalemate. What sometimes happens though is the child leans back at such an extreme angle that you pull against them just to keep them from injury.
There is a sense in which this is what God does with us when we are rebelling. We're pushing against God. He could easily force us into submission but instead he allows us a limited amount of freedom to do this. If he were to give us absolute freedom we would seriously hurt ourselves (perhaps even eternally) and so he restrains us.
However, at some point God lets us go and allows us to have the absolute freedom that we want. This freedom is enjoyable for a time, but eventually we suffer "the due penalty" for our rebellion (Romans 1:27).
Like a child who thinks he can win a tug of war contest, you may be testing God right now through your actions. You're going to do things your way, not his. God may be restraining you at this time, but be warned that at some point he'll let go of the rope. And rest assured that when God finally lets go, you'll discover that absolute freedom is not a pleasant thing at all.
As C.S. Lewis said, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"
Father, thank you for your patience with us, for restraining us from our own foolishness. Help us to learn that your way is best.
