Consequences of Robbing God

Robbing God

It’s not by gun, nor by knife
Neither with muscle and strife
Do we rob God of His honour

No

We are more cunning than that

Subtlety is how we attack

And steal God of His authority

But

Our wilful arrogance

And careless stupidity

Hides our vulnerability

To

God’s last word at our duplicity

Is judgement at our cupidity

And banishment for eternity

The Biblical writer named Malachi used the term to describe people’s delusion in the way they treated Yahweh. They expected God to pour out happiness and prosperity even though they short changed Him in their worship and stewardship. Then they complained when their family life and society was in turmoil through strife, injustices and moral breakdown. Why was this happening? Because the way they treated and thought about God was how each treated the other. If you imagine you can get away with robbing God it must be so much easier to rip off others.

Jesus stated the obvious when He said ‘Love God and Love your neighbour.’ To know the Lord God as revealed in Scripture and the person of Jesus will draw out love. Well it should if we are willing to surrender our own claim to ‘godhood’. That is the ultimate form of robbing God. We deny Him and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, authority in and over our lives. We want His blessing whilst maintaining our sovereignty. It doesn’t work. That in turn causes our conflicts with our nearest as well as those farthest away.

We cry out for justice, yet we want to sit on the judge’s seat. We speak about honesty yet enjoy our unrighteous lifestyle. We hear so much about peace but war is really in the heart. We read about lawlessness everyday but turn our back on holiness. By these means we rob God of His honour as He alone is Righteous, Peace, Holy and the ultimate Judge.

Thankfully the Lord God is patient and gracious. He has given us time to apologise and cease our robbing habits. He can forgive us and change our ways because of the Christ of Calvary. However it will only be effective personally if you and I hand over the sovereignty of our lives to Christ Jesus. Then He becomes our eternal Saviour not our condemning Judge.
Ray (no longer robbing) Hawkins