Consider God’s Kindness and God’s Sternness

Elizabeth and I have been spent this week at Hume Lake Christian Camps with our youth group from church. We had about 45 students at three different camps, so we made our rounds to the various camps throughout each day and we had a blast.

A few nights ago at the Jr. High Bible Study meeting, the speaker, Phil Payne, began his message with Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God. He continued by noting that we oftentimes think of the kindness of the Lord, but how often do we really consider the sternness or the severity of God.

There are two lies that have crept into the church. Not only that, but the church has bought into these lies. The first lie is that “God wants us to be happy.” The second lie is that “Life is all about me.” Is it God’s heart for me to really be happy? Yes we must have joy. But is my happiness really God’s passion for me? Second of all – and closely related to the first is this. Is life all about me? Does God make decisions and plan things around me? Phil brought the truth and confronted both of these lies head on and said that we must rid ourselves of this thinking and turn to a God-centered mindset instead of a man-centered mindset.

He then led us to Daniel chapter four and discussed the height, haughtiness and humbling of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He talked about how we so often think of ourselves as being so prideful; That we are doing okay; That we are capable in and of ourselves to do whatever we want.

King Nebuchadnezzar did what he wanted. He had the strongest army in the world at that time. He had the greatest and most prominent position in the world. He had it all. However, God was not (and still is not) willing to share his glory with another. God humbled King Neb from the highest of heights (humanly speaking) to the lowest and most humiliating position of that of a wild beast eating the grass of a field for seven years.

Consider the kindness and the severity of God. Kindness towards those who believe, yet severity towards those who don’t.

May you, this day, run to God pleading for His mercy so that God does not have to deal with you in his severity.

Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God.