not too short

Sometimes I have to bite my tongue, because the situation isn’t right and all I’m going to do is start an argument. I especially have that when people are frustrated that God did something they didn’t like, or more often, didn’t do something they thought he should have. 

I had that recently. A person said, “I’m done with God because nothing happens when I pray.”

Partly I bite my tongue in those situations because I never really know what to say. This morning, though, after reading Isaiah 59, I have better answer if I ever need it. Verses 1 and 2 say: 

“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.”

These verses communicate a hard truth: God is capable of anything, and willing to do anything that’s good for me, but that doesn’t mean he has to. He’s not an enormous cosmic vending machine that I plug prayers into and things I want come out of. 

If my admittedly limited understanding of God is correct, then he is an intimate God, desiring a relationship with me. I think he’s that way because he knows the only way I’ll truly flourish is in that relationship. But his nature and character don’t require him to listen to people who are trying to manipulate him.

And that’s what I’m doing when I only go to God in times of trouble. If that’s how I live, then I’m really saying, “Stay out of my life until I want something, but then you’d better be there.” 

What person would respond to that? What spouse would support a person who says, “Don’t judge me, and stop telling me what to do. Now go make me a sandwich.”

God’s arm is not to short to do any mighty work I can imagine, and his ear is so sharp he hears even the things I don’t want him to. But if I’m choosing sin over obedience, he may decide to ignore me. And why shouldn’t he?

The good news is that it doesn’t take much to fix a relationship with God. He readily forgives, and he loves like no other.