Although
God causes the sun to rise on the evil as well as the good, and although He waters
the land belonging both to the righteous and the unrighteous, it does not mean
that God approves of their evil or unrighteous behavior.
If
unconverted people would really pay attention, they would recognize that the
whole earth is actually full of the lovingkindness of the Lord (Psalm 33:5).
At
times, evil people advance in this world quicker than the righteous, which
seems totally unfair to us. As humans, we would take a totally different
approach. We would zap our enemies and annihilate them.
Yet,
God often makes sure that unbelievers experience the same joys and benefits
from His love that Believers do. He draws them by His love, just as He drew us
by His love, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).
At
times, we are frustrated by the sinner's blindness to the goodness of God, and
we lament that they do not praise Him for His love and kindness (Psalm 107:8).
They
know about God; yet, most of them reject Him or even accuse Him for everything
that goes wrong in their life. Their foolish hearts get darker and darker in
the midst of God's obvious wonders (Romans 1:21).
Nevertheless,
God pours out His blessings on the unjust as well as the just (Matthew 5:45).
Then, He calls us to mirror His love to our unsaved friends, relatives,
associates and neighbors by laying our life down for them (Romans 5:7).
Prayer:
Father
God, give us the same mercy and grace toward sinners that You showed to us.
Keep us from expressing the frustration we often feel towards their resistance
to Your love. Help us not to judge them, but to accept them right where they
are; knowing that You will convict them in your timing and way.
Remind
us often that we are no better than the sinner, because the only difference is
that we are already saved by Your grace. Let us lay down our life for them.
Give us the chance to prove to them that our motivation for serving them is
nothing more than Your love for them in us.
Thought
for the Day:
God
desires that we continually pray for the salvation of the sinner; and that we
utilize every opportunity to take as many of them to heaven with us as will
have the humility to surrender to God's love.
