God's Eternal Power

The Inescapable God
God Protects
Romans 1:18-24 (The Message)

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral

 ^18-23But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.  ^24-25So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

For Reflection
OK. So here are some questions.  Did God punish these folks for their failure to see the truth in God?  Or have we been created by God to make choices that can have disastrous consequences?  Did God withhold his power to fix things?  Or did God stand by, suffering the pain of his children's disappointing behavior, and comforting those who asked?  Did God wait for the silliness to end so that he could welcome the people, like prodigal sons,into his loving arms?

Pray
that you escape being trapped by the silliness of our times.  Pray that you trade the promise of progress for the promise of salvation. Pray for awareness of God'd direction in your life.