GIVEN UP TO THEIR OWN WAYS
GIVEN UP TO THEIR OWN WAYS
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me. So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. —Psalm 81:11-12
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts… Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. —Romans 1:21, 24
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. —Romans 1:25-26
Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. —Romans 1:27-28
Imagine our not listening to the Lord God Almighty, Creator of all things and the One who holds all things together. Imagine anybody not willing to listen to Him who is Sovereign over all things. Or think about those who “talk back to Him.” “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:20-21). When we were growing up we knew what would happen if we “talked back” to our parents. Yet people are quick to talk back to God. How serious is that? It can be eternally serious!
When people do not want to listen to our loving, compassionate, caring, concerned and longsuffering Lord then there is a point where He gives them up or lets them go their own way. How foolish to not walk in the Light, but choosing to walk in darkness. Why do people do this? It is because “people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
This is nothing new. It all started with Adam and Eve going their own way and eating the fruit they were told not to (Genesis 3). Since then sin has be desirous to the natural man more than desiring God. How sad… But for God to “give them up” to their own ways is a scary statement. When people make the choice to suppress the truth of God they do this by their own wickedness. The darkened heart lives without the Light of God. They cannot see His glory and cannot understand Him. They see life with blinders on with Satan the instigator in this (II Corinthians 4:4). Satan uses all kinds of things to blind people from the truth.
I was talking with Tom yesterday. He has a religious background, but with what he has seen happening in “the church” he does not want anything to do with “it.” The trouble is that Tom doesn’t understand what the Biblical church is, who Jesus is and he has made a god up in his mind to his own liking and going his own way. This is so sad, but it is understandable how Satan will use the wickedness of men to “suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). Still, what an eternally dangerous place to be when God may “give them up.” We do not know when this may happen in a person’s life so let us share the gospel with whoever we can. Dear Father, may this be so in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. So be it for Your honor and Your glory! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-pYBUCjkqE