God`s Attitude For Sinners

Luke 15:7 (NIV)

⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

For those of you who have been reading my last few posts, you could trace the thread of struggle that I am going through especially in the past couple of weeks. My struggle is internal where my impatience and desperation for a God`s change in my circumstances (restoring my family) collides with a struggle to give up my husband to God, so He could deal with him at whatever level necessary to bring him to repentance to get him saved. I started to fall into severe depression due to this "dormant" endless waiting period. It`s been almost three months since the filing of the custody claim, and I am yet to hear from the circuit court regarding the date for a scheduling conference that`s supposed to outline the set of appointed hearings/prospect court decisions.

As I was slowly falling into this state of depression and weeping again on a drive home yesterday, God showed me this scripture in Luke 15:7. I know this whole chapter all too well because I can associate myself with the prodigal son, but God spoke to me something else yesterday. He reminded me not to be like the other son, who got jealous and unhappy of Father`s acceptance of the prodigal son. He showed me verse 7 where He brought me down to my knees once again to intercede for my husband.

It is all too easy for us to concentrate on the misery of one self rather than look at the circumstances through God`s own eyes. Although I continue to pray for God to sustain me in His word and to make sure I don`t fall down spiritually, but I noticed that in desperate times, especially when I have to wait for so long for any piece of information, it is too easy to think about my own misery and get depressed. Once I let that happen, I start looking at my husband through my own eyes—only seeing evil, pride, self-righteousness, anger, bitterness, and unfaithfulness.

God had to take my attention off of myself yet again, and show me what my situation is really all about: " there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent". This is what it`s all about- to get my husband to repent, to get him saved, and God is doing it slowly and surely one step at a time. I just have to be patient and stay faithful to Him, so I don`t become like the other son in the chapter Luke 15:32 where Father told him:

³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (NIV)

I could see myself becoming like the older son who was grudgingly praying to God: why is that my husband continues to get the house and he has so much more vacation time to take our daughter out any time he wants while I have to go to work every day and barely have any leave to afford for the court dates, let alone taking time off for my fun time with my daughter? I was starting to steep inside, and God had to remind me the ultimate goal for my circumstances.

I like how Oswald Chambers said in today`s devotion:

“. . . and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh-the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God . . . .” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the Son God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8). It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable limits-a faith that comes only from the Son of God.

Only when I allow God to live in my heart, He transforms my life to have this transcending faith that`s capable to change all “imaginable things”.

If you feel like you`re losing your faith or starting to doubt, or concentrating on your own self rather than on God`s ultimate plan for your life, think about this verse that God commands us to rejoice and to do whatever it takes to get even one sinner saved because eternity is at stake. Our mortal few decades on this earth are nothing compare to what eternity holds, and God is far too aware of the consequences of the sin to know the importance of getting as many sinners saved as possible to help them avoid the hell and eternal damnation.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 22:13 NIV)

⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13:40-43 NIV)

I think we don`t have to argue regarding the reality of heaven and hell because for those of us who believe in God, we have Bible that`s full of scriptures describing both heaven and hell; but when I see these scriptures where God is showing us this vivid picture of those who denied Him and of those who didn`t repent to get saved, their place would be in the eternal fire where they would have “weeping and gnashing of teeth”, and it sobers me up to deny myself the luxury of self-pity or self-concentration,   

I don`t want to see my husband there, or anyone who I care about deeply. That`s how God feels about all of us whom He created with His own hands, and that`s why He made it so clear to us in His scripture commanding us to do whatever it takes to get saved as many people as we can to help them avoid this kind of a consequence.

I urge you to reconsider your attitude towards your circumstances and adopt the same perspective God has for those who wronged us: He craves for them to get saved just like you and I are saved. Don`t be like the older brother who should have been rejoicing with the Father regarding the return of his prodigal brother. I know I had to reconsider my attitude again and direct my faith towards God`s ultimate goal rather than towards my own heart`s desire.