Feb. 16
Charles Spurgeon · Faith's Checkbook
YOU DEAL WITH GOD
"I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to
destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man" Hos. 11:9
The Lord thus makes known His sparing mercies. It may be that the
reader is now under heavy displeasure, and everything threatens his
speedy doom. Let the text hold him up from despair. The Lord now
invites you to consider your ways, and confess your sins. If He had
been man, He would long ago have cut you off. If He were now to act
after the manner of men, it would be a word and a blow and then there
would be an end of you: but it is not so, for "as high as the heavens
are above the earth, so high are his ways above your ways."
You rightly judge that He is angry, but He keepeth not His anger for
ever: if you turn from sin to Jesus, God will turn from wrath. Because
God is God, and not man, there is still forgiveness for you, even
though you may be steeped up to your throat in iniquity. You have a God
to deal with, and not a hard man, nor even a merely just man. No human
being could have patience with you: you would have wearied out an
angel, as you have wearied your sorrowing father; but God is
longsuffering. Come and try Him at once. Confess, believe, and turn
from your evil way, and you shall be saved.