When God says "Whatever"

I just noticed that Proverbs 1:31 and Romans 1:24 are about the same exact thing. When we ignore God's input, He abandons us to our desires and things get really dark. That's what's so scary: we're left to our own lawlessness and its ill effects when we walk outside of the design for how things SHOULD work.

I have been refreshing my mind with the wisdom of Matt Chandler recently and I remember him saying in one podcast that in reference to Romans 1, when mankind turns away from Him and worships itself and the creation over the Creator, God's response is not instant lightning bolts and death, although we do see that plenty in the days before the new Covenant. God's response is often, "ok." He abandons us to our shameful desires and all forms of sin that we champion as "our way" and "our life". When we hold no regard to what our holy God wants for us, and ignore Scripture that so clearly tells us the desires of God, we spit in His face.

Isaiah 45:19 says that God "publicly proclaims bold promises; He does not whisper obscurities in some dark corner so that no one can understand what He means; He would not have told His people to seek Him if He could not be found". So, when we claim that "oooh God didn't say I couldn't do it so I'm gonna do it and get away with it", and you haven't even read the Bible to make sure, what a joke you are! Small reward people like you will reap when you are content to let your faith get no larger than the distance from your TV to the dusty Bible on your nightstand. The world blasphems the name of God because of people with shallow faith. Again, just quoting Scripture here.

Back to the topic. If we do not listen to the voice of Wisdom, shouting in the streets as in Proverbs 1, then we are lost to our own devices and desires (which always, eventually bring us down).

So does God never rebuke and lead us to repentance? Of course He does! But sometimes He abandons us to our own devices so that we can realize how much we need Him.