Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?'”

You can’t get any clearer than this! The devil has been saying ever since the Garden of Eden that God wants less than the best for mankind, but that was a lie from the first moment it was said or even implied. So many people today think God has it in for them, that He’s just waiting to squash them for all the stuff they know they’ve done. Here God Himself is saying that’s not the case. He wants people to repent because He wants them to live, to escape the eternal death and destruction that are the natural consequence of sin. God is not a killjoy! He has given us taste buds and noses to get full enjoyment from food, but He knows that overeating is destructive to our health in many ways. He has given us the sensory and physical equipment to thoroughly enjoy sex, but He knows that outside of marriage it is extremely destructive in the long run, however much thrill there might be in the moment. When He calls us to repent, it is not because He wants to keep good things from us, it is because He wants us to escape bad things and receive His best. God is indeed the perfect, loving, heavenly Father, but we tend to have a distorted view of what love is, so the moment He starts to discipline us we think He doesn’t love us, that He’s being mean. Probably the best answer to that line of thinking is expressed in Hebrews 12, summarizing in verse 11. “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” As that passage says, human fathers do the best they know how, but they are far from perfect. However, God is indeed perfect, and that’s why He calls us to repent and applies discipline to encourage us to do so.

I’ve experienced my share of discipline, from my parents and especially from God, and that last is ongoing! However, I know the truth of both this verse in Ezekiel and the passage in Hebrews, and I am very grateful for what God puts me through. A key word in that last sentence is through; God never leaves me in a “time out” longer than necessary. Some lessons He’s had to teach me again and again, until I finally grasped them. Some are still ongoing! As a pastor I am constantly trying to help people understand that if they will really repent, that is, change the way they are living, then they won’t have to go through the junk again. We can be very dense in understanding that! I am to remember my own track record and exercise toward them the patience that was shown to me, so that together we may walk in God’s best, knowing that is His will for us.

Father, thank You for making this very, very clear statement to Ezekiel, and for your love and grace that back it up. Help me be an increasingly effective channel of that love and grace to all I encounter, so that as many as possible may be led to repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!