Daniel 4 -- God's Grace Has Its Limits

God had been gracious to Nebuchadnezzar.  He’d brought him to power, but now He was warning him.  His pride was going to cost him dearly – seven years of insanity were coming.  Daniel warned him, “Please accept my advice.  Stop sinning and do what is right.”

 

God even gave the king an entire year of grace to understand and make changes to his life, but despite the warnings, the king stubbornly held onto his pride.

 

A year later, with no repentance having occurred, God had waited longer than the king even deserved.  God flipped the switch, and with not even a second to repent, the king went into seven years of insanity, grazing outside.

 

But at the end of those seven years, God faithfully lifted the veil.  The king had been looking up to heaven as an animal sometimes does, and suddenly he could think normally again.  His first response was to give praise, honor, and glory to God.  His stubbornness and pride had cost him dearly. 

 

All too often we view God’s sovereignty over our lives as entrapment.  Sin causes us to want free of Him.  My commentary, though, says, “No person is more free than the believer who surrenders to the sovereign will of God … The heart of sinful man rebels at the very idea of a sovereign God, for the human heart wants to be free of all outside control.  Sinners think they are free and don’t realize how much they are in bondage to their fallen nature and to the forces of Satan and the world … Most men quarrel with this sovereignty of God, but understand – the thing that you complain of in God is the very thing that you love in yourselves.”

 

Father God, please work this truth into the lives of those who, like I once did, are foolishly wanting You out of their lives, when their greatest good comes from You being in their lives.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford