Haha... it was after Maths paper 1 and I was in the library studying for chem paper 3... then i got a bit tired and rest... and praying to God at the same time....
then it came to a point where I was praying for God to remember everyone, be it believer or non-believer, who is taking their A-levels and be their strength. Then from nowhere, a random thought from my economics syllabus-- market failure, came into my mind. All of a sudden, this thought came into my mind: God's love is a public good but His gift (i.e. His salvation plan) for us is a merit good.
God's love is a public goodFor God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son [for us] (John 3:16a).
Yes, indeed God's love is like a public good because it is both non-rival and non-excludable.
Non-rival: because you do not need to be any privilege member of some high-class country club to enjoy His love for you. He even loves the worst sinners, be it hardcore criminals or homosexuals etc.
Non-excludable: because God's love will be the same for all. Even if there is an increase in the number of people in the world, His love will still be the same for you and I (The reason why you might not feel it because you have not come to know it or you are close with God.. but this is true.)
However....
God's gift is a merit good
That is, God's gift in this case is
excludable (but nevertheless, non-rival). This is because you need to believe in Him and accept Him as your personal saviour before you can receive this free gift, given to God by His grace and mercy. On top of that, God's gift is like a merit good in that it is always under consumed because people are ignorant about the external benefits that it brings to the society and/or they are irrational (although this is an assumption in econs, it is a fact in this case!!).
Ignorant: because not everybody in this world has heard or has come to know about this gracious and merciful God, and the benefits that it brings to them when we believe in Jesus and accept Him: Eternal life, free from all the chains of sin and guilt, escape from the lake of fire and eternal perdition...
Irrational: because for some reason, due to mindsets that cannot be changed, the refusal of people to believe that there is a God or the refusal to believe that Jehovah is the only true and living God. Whatever the reason may be, the bottom line why this is so is because of the harden hearts that all of us have (except maybe theirs more harden than ours??). These people have heard about God and the great things that He can bestow upon us, but for some reason, choose not to accept it... Sigh...
" Oh God, I pray that you may open the eyes and soften the hearts of the 'irrational' people mentioned here so that they may come to know the truth and accept your son as their personal saviour and you as the almighty one. I also pray for the ignorant people that one day they may come to know you and the good that you can bring to them to fill up the empty hole that the things of this world can never do so. Nevertheless God, continue to remember them... because they are still your beloved ones. I pray all these in Jesus' name. Amen."Haha, so you see, how wonderful my/our God (and hopefully yours if any non-believer is reading this!) is! He works in ways we cannot see and he will reveal something to you at unexpected time and situation, that we can never comprehend, like then when I was having my break from chemistry when suddenly I thought of econs... What a nice way to see God's revelation... haha... Thank you God for the sweet time together :)
Oh and that reminds me, I haven't been touching econs for 2 weeks already... better start soon in case i forget my concepts...
20 more days to the end... till then, bye :)
(Oh and I was thinking, what happens to my GC once I graduate and stop using it in about 4 days' time? Anybody wants it? My brother has no use of it since he intends to go poly...)
