And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.     Romans 1:28 HCSB

This is one of the scariest passages of Scripture in the Bible to me. In Romans 1 (16-17), Paul talks about how the righteous will live by faith. None of us can be righteous on our own, but when we accept Christ as our Savior and truly trust in God and love Him with all our heart, He gives us righteousness through Him. He sends His Holy Spirit to live in us to help us do what is right.

But, in verse 18, Paul begins to explain the guilt of people who reject God. In verse 18, Paul says that God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth, since what can be know about God is evident among them because God has shown it to them. But Paul goes on to say these are people who knew God, but did not glorify Him as God or show their gratitude. They rejected Him. As a result God let them have it their way. He gave them over to the evil desires of their hearts.

We are taught no matter what we do, God will forgive us if we earnestly repeat. We are told that His blood can wash our sins away (1 John 1:9). We are told that God will remove our sins as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). All of this is true, but this Scripture passage in Romans tells us there is a point of no return. There is a time when God will give us over.

We have been studying the book of 1 Samuel and reading about Saul and David. The story of Saul is a sad one. He is a young farmer’s son turned king. He’s off to a great start, but he fails to acknowledge God. He failed to pray as often as he should. He failed to be obedient to God (1 Samuel 13). He thought that partial obedience was good enough (1 Samuel 15). God allowed him to remain king, but told him that his son would not inherit the throne. As you continue reading through 1 Samuel, you see that Saul is given over to madness. Instead of being able to enjoy the rest of his life as king. He was tormented by jealousy and anger for the rest of his life. God gave him over. He reached that point of no return.

Tonight, we will turn our clocks back one hour. Do you ever wish you could turn your clock or calendar back many years? Do you ever wish that you could do it all over again? Would you have done things differently?

While I am not a fan of the time change, I would be happy to be able to do a few things over in my life. I think back to a time when I didn’t love God as I should. Oh,  if you had asked me I would have told you I loved God and I was a Christian. I had been baptized. I had spent years going to church, but my service to God was a bit lacking. I was busy serving myself.

If I could turn back time, I would have remained devoted to church attendance as I had been in my youth. I would have grown and thrived in His service. I would have loved Him more. I would have trusted Him and put Him first in my life much sooner. If I had done all these things, I may have still had heartache, but I would have gone through it with Him by my side. I am not saying that God deserted me, but I know the sin in my life created a barrier between me and Him (Isaiah 59:2) for a number of years.

There are several passages in 1 Samuel that tell us that God was with David, but that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul. God had given him over to his fleshly desires. He had given him over to his disobedience. Saul knew God, but did not acknowledge Him as the one true God. He did not honor Him with obedience. He did not live in faith to Him.

Maybe there are some things you would like to do over. I think we could all say that. I know this one hour won’t help most of us, but we can make a commitment to Him now. We can start fresh today. If you have known God, but not been honoring Him or acknowledging Him as Lord of your life, do it now. Trust in Him before it’s too late.

Have a great day!