I’m going to put an end to….
Thursday, April 10
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the words: “I’m going to put an end to ___________.” The blank is usually filled with words like; this marriage, this relationship, this problem, this situation. In more extreme circumstances the blank is filled with words like her life, his life, their life, or even my life. Let’s call these words the tipping point, the point in which you become fed-up and upset. Fed up with the situation and or the person, and upset with God because He has allowed this injustice to go unanswered. So you declare: I’m going to put an end to…..
Imagine being Noah, the only just and righteous man in his generation. I don’t think we can begin to imagine what Noah lived through. The daily and constant injustices he must have endured. How many times do you think he reached the tipping point? The interesting thing is that Bible doesn’t tell us that Noah reached the tipping point; the Bible tells us that God was the one who reached the tipping point. It was God who saw the corruption of the world and said: “I’m going to put and end to this…”
God reaching a tipping point, God becoming feed up? Yes, God has his limits too. Yet this is not bad news. This is good news, because just like in Noah’s life, the injustices in your life don’t go unnoticed. God see’s them, it’s just that He’s a God of unimaginable grace giving everyone ample time to repent. But there will come a time where God will put an end to all injustice. In the meantime do you know what you and I have to do? We have to live like Noah lived; we have to live our lives allowing God to extend his grace to the just and to the unjust.
To the unjust, giving them time to repent and to the just, giving them grace to withstand the temptation to take matters into their own hands.
Bible reading
Genesis 6:11-13
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.
1 Corinthians 10:133
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Heavenly Father, I ask that you extend your grace to me in those moments that I reach the tipping point, in those moments where I am tempted to say, “I am going to put an end to this…” Help me to not take the situation into my own hands, but rather to allow time for your grace to be extended to both the just and the unjust.
