Tag: God's wrath

Categories
1 Thessalonians Devotionals

The God of peace

God of peace

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

I was thinking about the words “God of peace,” today.

Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4:3,

For this is God’s will: your sanctification…

Now here in chapter 5, Paul prays that God would fully work out that sanctification in our lives.

Sometimes that process includes discipline. And that discipline can be painful at times. But we need not think God is constantly staring at us with an angry face.

He is the God of peace. We are at peace with him.

So that’s the truth I’m soaking myself in today, even as I’m thinking about all the areas God’s working on in my life.

“God is not angry at me. I’m at peace with him.”

Categories
Exodus Devotions

God’s wrath and mercy

For this time I am about to send all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like me on the whole earth.

By now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth.

However, I have let you live for this purpose: to show you my power and to make my name known on the whole earth. (Exodus 9:14-16)

This passage really struck me today.

For all the judgment that God poured out on the Egyptians, he also showed mercy.

He could have wiped them out in an instant for their sin. And yet, he didn’t.

More, he gave them warning on how they could save their own lives from the hail he was going to send. (19)

For all the wrath that God pours out on people for their sin, he still shows mercy.

He’s patient. He gives them time to repent.

Ultimately, his desire is that people will come to know and love him.

Pharaoh had said mockingly to Moses, “I don’t know the Lord.” (Exodus 5:2)

So God showed him the kind of God he was. That he is a God of justice who punishes sin. But also that he is a God of mercy to those who will fear him.

But even more interesting to me, we see the truth of God’s words in the life of Rahab.

By letting the Pharaoh live, he showed his power and made his name known to the surrounding nations, particularly when he split the Red Sea.

The result? Rahab and her family were saved. (Joshua 2:8-14, 6:25)

So even in the wrath God poured out on Pharaoh on his army at the Red Sea, the result was mercy shown to Rahab and her family.

Not only that, Rahab ended up in the family tree of Jesus. (Matthew 1:5)

God shows mercy to us all in a sense. He shows mercy to all in not wiping us out right now.

But mercy that leads to salvation comes only with repentance.

God warns us. God gives us time to repent.

The question is what will you do with it?

For he says:

At an acceptable time I listened to you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.

See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation! (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Categories
Psalms Devotionals

The One who drank our cup of judgment.

Psalms

God is the Judge:
He brings down one and exalts another.

For there is a cup in the Lord’s hand,
full of wine blended with spices, and he pours from it.

All the wicked of the earth will drink,
draining it to the dregs. (Psalm 75:7-8)

As I read this passage, I think of Revelation 14, where it talks about a very similar theme: God’s judgment on the nations.

It uses the same imagery of God pouring out his cup of wrath on all those who rebel against him. (Revelation 14:9-11)

And that day is indeed coming.

But there was another day when God’s cup of wrath was poured out. It was poured out on a cross 2000 years ago.

It was a cup that Jesus wanted to avoid, but one that Jesus drank for our sake. On the cross, he drank in the undiluted wrath of God.

And because he did so, we no longer have to. Instead, now we sing with the psalmist,

We give thanks to you, God;
we give thanks to you, for your name is near.
People tell about your wondrous works. (1)