Standing in the Place of God

“On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers arrogantly back to God and dares to defy Him? Will the thing which is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” Romans 9:20 (AMP)

Many professions require practitioners to make decisions or judgments that imitate God; in a real sense, they act as though they were God or equal to Him. Admittedly, to do their job, they must decide one way or the other. They are expected to decide; the job calls for it. Judges, doctors, employers, college professors, lawyers, etc., make judgments that can be critically important to an individual’s life, and in some cases even to their death. The decision can also mean success or impoverishment, continued sustainment or ruin, healing or dying. Their job requires they decide something.

However, they do not make these decisions without moral responsibility. If they really do stand, relatively, in the place of God in determining someone’s future, livelihood, health, freedom, incarceration, success or failure, or death, you would think it is a decision to be made with great caution, judiciousness, fairness, and justice. Such would, at the very least, be a decision and/or judgment which requires great humility, not arrogance; if made confidently, then a confidence balanced with trembling, for you ought to presume, whether knowing it or not, that you are standing, relatively, in the place of God in the life of this person. These professionals may not even believe in God, and consequently, they rely solely on their own competence, wisdom, and ability to reach a weighty conclusion. But do they really feel the weight of such a decision? A decision made by human ability alone?

The person who contemplates suicide or does take their life presumes to stand in the place of God. God gave life, and He can take it away, but who are you to determine your life should come to an end? Yet many do. There are those who hold a gun in their hand and often, on a whim, choose to criminally take the life of another, quickly and devastatingly. They most often do so with seemingly no regret or grief. They show no regard for the preciousness of life. They act as God but are actually a devil. Then there are those who live as though no God exists to guide them. They take matters into their own hands and are convinced they have the freedom to live their life as they darn well please. Yet when they end up poorly, they blame God, even though they don’t really believe He exists! Figure that.

The truth is God does exist. He is! And you have much to do with God, and He has much to do with you. One day we will stand before Him, thoroughly convinced we should have considered Him far more in how we live and make decisions. Today is never too late to do just that!

God has stooped to make Himself personally available to you. In the person of Jesus Christ, He has made Himself visible to you. He shows Himself powerfully in the power and magnificence of His awesome creation in which you live, marvel, and wonder. He does answer prayer. He is not silent! He is always near to you wherever you are in the world. He knows the words of your mouth before they roll off your lips. You cannot escape His presence, as Psalm 139 makes abundantly clear. He alone can lead you in the way everlasting! God is, and therefore you are, and ever will be, either in a wonderful state or a terribly poor one.

Encouragement

“When this passing world is done, when has sunk yon glaring sun, when we stand with Christ in glory, looking o’er life’s finished story, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe.”

(1st verse of Robert Murray McCheyne’s hymn, “When This Passing World Is Done,” 1837)