Suggested Reading: Romans 9:14-29
I've always loved watching the difference between the way little girls play with Legos and the way little boys play with them (please forgive the stereotyping I'm about to do based on my experience). Little girls like to build something and then play with it and admire it. While boys sometimes do that as well, little boys are just as likely to build something for the sole purpose of destroying it. They enjoy putting something together just so they can knock it down and I admit I did the same thing when I was a little boy. When girls and boys play together this can lead to conflict, and eventually to separate building endeavors. Often I hear the little girls ask the question, "Why do you build it if you're just going to knock it down?" and just as often I hear the boys respond with something like, "I built it. I can knock it down if I want to." Imagine for just a moment, though, if one of those Lego construction projects suddenly spoke up and said, "You can't knock me down! I have rights!" While children might stop and wonder at the suddenly speaking legos, they might just as easily laugh and say, "Oh yeah, I built you and I can knock you down if I want."
I've always loved watching the difference between the way little girls play with Legos and the way little boys play with them (please forgive the stereotyping I'm about to do based on my experience). Little girls like to build something and then play with it and admire it. While boys sometimes do that as well, little boys are just as likely to build something for the sole purpose of destroying it. They enjoy putting something together just so they can knock it down and I admit I did the same thing when I was a little boy. When girls and boys play together this can lead to conflict, and eventually to separate building endeavors. Often I hear the little girls ask the question, "Why do you build it if you're just going to knock it down?" and just as often I hear the boys respond with something like, "I built it. I can knock it down if I want to." Imagine for just a moment, though, if one of those Lego construction projects suddenly spoke up and said, "You can't knock me down! I have rights!" While children might stop and wonder at the suddenly speaking legos, they might just as easily laugh and say, "Oh yeah, I built you and I can knock you down if I want."
As human beings created by God, the human race has grown increasingly arrogant through the centuries, believing we have the right to tell God what he can do and what he can't do. Even Christian theologians today have the audacity today to decide what God can and can't do based on their own ideas and human systems of moralities. Paul fought this same attitude from people who didn't want to face God's judgment for their sin and questioned God's right to act as judge. Paul responded by asking, But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor? (Romans 9:20-21, HCSB).
We serve a God who is loving and kind, who extends mercy to us because of His great love for us. But we must never take God's kindness and patience for granted and start believing that God owes us kindness and patience. As his beloved children, we can trust that God will give us mercy because God has promised it to us, but we must never presume upon it. We must never begin to treat God with the attitude that he owes us anything. God has the right to do whatever God wants to do with us. The fact that God doesn't simply destroy us and has promised not to doesn't mean we should treat God like he can't.
Have you been presuming on God's grace? Doing things you know you shouldn't because God has to forgive you if you ask him? Have you been pushing the boundaries without worrying about the consequences because you know God will be patient with you? Normally, we call that taking advantage of someone. As kind and merciful as God is, trying to take advantage of God is a dangerous game to play.
