What Do You Expect?
God has promised to provide for His children. Yet, no sane person would ever find fault with God if someone stopped going to work, got fired, lost their home, possessions, all they had in the world, because they just didn't go to work. Or what if they just stopped paying the bills - is God ever to blame for that? Does that make this abundance of verses on His providing for us a lie? Did God fail to do what He said He would do if we become totally self-indulgent & expect Him to work magic for us despite our own actions? This is possible with God, but this isn't the way He's set things up.So why, pray tell, do we question God when it comes to the damnation of those who have never heard the Gospel? Could God save every man, woman, & child apart from us? You better believe it. But this isn't the way He's set things up. He has made it clear that we are the means in which He chooses to use for the salvation of the ends of the earth. Matthew 10, 13, 28:16-20, Mark 16:15, & Romans 10 & 15, just to name a few, make it clear that the nations will hear when we go to them & proclaim the Gospel. So why is it that the Coca-Cola Company can have its product found in the deepest jungles among the unreached & you can't find the Gospel there? Coke, motivated by money, has done what we have failed to do - go to the ends of the earth. But we're supposed to have the most precious treasure of all.
God promises to provide for us, but every single one of us recognizes that a job is a gift from God, we pay our bills with the bounty God has provided, & we know God provides through those means. We don't expect His provision to materialize from thin air.
In the same regard, when God tells us the nations will repent & believe when we go to them, what do we expect to happen in the world when we disobey God. Why are there billions lost? Why are there billions of unreached who have never even heard the Gospel one time? Because God is impotent? Fake? It's because we don't go, we don't support, we don't send, & we most shamefully don't even pray. How do I know that's the case? Because the same way God promises to provide, & He does, I also know God's promises on the salvation of nations is true. So, if God isn't providing, the fault lies with you for your laziness or irresponsibility. And if God isn't saving, it's because His means of doing so is rebellious. What do you expect, we don't give, go, or pray (o r do so in the most minimalistic way) & God will do magic tricks? He's quite capable, but He gets more glory when weasels like us obey Him & show Him supreme. God tarries because you do.
