Posted on by Pastor Steve

Divine Frustration

Have you ever wondered if God gets frustrated? I know that God operates on an entirely different level from us but just play along with me for a few minutes.

We know that God has emotions. The Bible speaks of God loving, becoming angry, having regrets, being jealous, feeling compassion, hating, and feeling joy. All of these involve some form of emotion. Theologians describe God as having personhood, which in turn is defined as any being possessing intellect, emotion, and will. The thought of God having emotions is embedded in our theology.

FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE DO YOU THINK YOUR LIFE

IS GOING THE AWY HE WANTS IT TO GO? OR IS HE

FRUSTRATED WITH THE WAY YOU GO ABOUT LIFE?

So God has emotions, but does He ever get frustrated? That’s the question.

Frustration is a feeling of being upset or annoyed. We get upset often and normally easily whenever something in life doesn’t go the way we want it to go. Does that happen to God?

Well, the Bible never says that God gets frustrated, but He certainly has every right to.

Think about your life. From God’s perspective do you think your life is going the way He wants it to go? Or is He frustrated with the way you go about life? The choices you make. Your decisions. Your thoughts and actions.

I’m not suggesting that we can frustrate God in the sense that we can derail His plans. It’s more the idea that He gets annoyed with us from time to time because we ignore His way and go through life our way. And we do that too often.

If there is such a thing as Divine Frustration, it is certainly warranted. Who would blame God? To deny His right to be frustrated with us is to bury our heads in the proverbial sand.

Every parent knows the feeling of frustration when their children do dumb things. God certainly knows that feeling too. All we want from our children is for them to do the right thing. Make the best choices. And that’s all God wants from us, His children.

Easy enough, right? You thought so when it was your children, why should it be any different with God?

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Posted on by Pastor Steve

Why Does God Bless Us?

In a recent article a transgender individual claimed that God approved of his/her lifestyle because he/she had been so blessed in life. Certainly, the reasoning goes, blessing comes from God and if you have been blessed, God must approve of the way you live.

There are two primary lines of thought going on here. First, the individual in

ONLY THE WISDOM OF GOD, FOUND IN THE WORD OF GOD

CAN GUIDE US INTO A LIFE THAT IS IN AGREEMENT WITH GOD

AND THEREFORE PLEASING TO GOD.

question was right in that blessing comes from God (James 1:17). I applaud them for recognizing that. Many people don’t.

But the issue is not only WHERE but WHY. Why does God bless us? Is it because we are so good that we deserve His blessing? That seemed to be the logic used to justify a lifestyle that is far from in-line with a Biblical one.

Yes, blessing comes from God but it comes, not because of who we are or because of how we are living but because of who HE is. He is the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10). It is from Him that blessings flow. Our lifestyles may play into it, but they are not the primary reason for His blessing. He blesses because that is His nature. Theologians refer to it as Common Grace. That is, God’s grace given to all of us equally regardless of our sin.

The second important issue is the matter of SOURCE. Where do people get their information, in this case about their lifestyle and about God’s blessing? Is it from the wisdom of man or the wisdom of God?

God’s view of the wisdom of man is that it is morally bankrupt (1 Corinthians 18ff). It is human wisdom that has led us into various kinds of immoral and ungodly lifestyles (Romans 1:18-32). Only the wisdom of God, found in the Word of God, can guide us into a life that is in agreement with God and therefore pleasing to God.

We don’t get to decide how God thinks or what He approves or disapproves. Those issues were settled long before we came on the scene and they have never changed.

Nor will they change (Psalm 119:89).

If you are a Christian, and you have read this far, you are no doubt nodding in agreement. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we have done the same thing. Perhaps on what we perceive to be a lesser scale, but still it is the same.

We have justified certain things in our lives that are contrary to the Word of God because God, in His grace has continued to bless us. And in our human wisdom we have decided that we must be alright with God. Or God is alright with us.

Well, we aren’t and He isn’t.

In His mercy and grace, God has overlooked more sins than He has punished. Lucky (that’s a deep theological term!) for us. But we must not presume upon His grace. He overlooks our sin to show us just how gracious and loving He is, not to say that He approves of our lifestyle choices.

Don’t confuse God’s grace with God’s approval.

God blesses us because, contrary to popular opinion, He is not a God of judgment but of grace (John 3:17).

It is incumbent upon us to respond to His grace in a way that promotes godliness, not that detracts from it.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve