Actually many of us would say that it is an insult to God to deny Him the sovereign rights over HIS creations..and instead to stand helplessly by while His sinful creation makes their choice.
Man was created not because God was lonely and needed company we were created for His glory.
Could you tell me how it is fine that man can decide to "accept" Christ or to "deny "Christ..but only a powerles god is acceptable to you?
Did not God choose Noah?,Did not God choose Abraham? Did not God choose Issac over Ishmael? Did not God choose Jacob over Essau? Did not God choose to pass over the eldest and select Juda for the spiritual blessing? Did not God choose to remove the tribe of Dan and replace it? Did not God choose to harden the heart of Pharaoh? Did not God choose the death of the soldiers of Egypt? Did not God choose the death of the male infants in Egypt?
Did not God choose the method of salvation?Did not God choose Israel? Did God not choose Mary ?
At what point did God give up His sovereignity?
We are not denying God his sovereign rights over HIS creations and claiming He is helpless to stop His creaton from sinning. Instead, we fully accept His rights and omnipotence, and love Him more because, even with His abilities, He chooses not to exercise them so that we may come to Him out of Love.
As for God's choices to spare Noah and harden Pharaoh's heart, those are good questions. It is obvious He did, if the Bible stories are to be taken as literal truth. Those incidents are my biggest obstacle to continuing in my previous convictions. If He truly punished those to whom He gave no choice, I never knew, thus never loved Him.
Mom as a Wesleyan, or at least a former one, you know better than to assert that we believe in a "powerless" God.