PAY ATTENTION

II Chron. 33:10  The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings.

Some things don’t seem to ever change.  Over and over again God speaks, but people keep ignoring His warnings.  I wonder sometimes why God even bothers.  People are stubborn and do what they want.  They consider God’s warnings to be just words and frivolous.  They scoff at the idea that God really means what He says.  They rebel at the thought that there are consequences for sin, that a loving God would hold them accountable for sinful behavior.

Yet, in order for there to be God, there has to be absolute perfection in all things.  God has to be absolutely trustworthy in everything He says or He cannot be trusted in anything He says.  God cannot be all loving if He is not equally holy.  He cannot be God of grace without being God of justice.  We cannot understand God only through the eyes of His goodness and love.  We also must understand Him to be holy and intolerant of sin.

When we have a high regard for God we will have a high regard for His warnings.  We cannot treat His warnings lightly.  God deals with sin harshly.  He commands our submission to His life.  We must be striving to be holy, even as He is holy.  We will never be as God is, but we can never excuse ourselves and not pursue holiness.  Holiness is a life of separation from sin.  It is a mindset that strives to resist and reject sin.  It forces us to deal with our sin before God when we do sin.  It is feeling guilt and shame for our sins and confessing them to Him so that we might be forgiven.

God does not leave us in the dark.  He warns us over and over again about sin and its consequences.   No one has any excuse.  All will be held accountable before God for sin.  No one will have anyone but themselves to blame when God metes out judgment for sin.  Pay attention to God’s warnings.  He says what He means and means what He says.