2 posts tagged “free will”

   Life is a gift from God. He knew from the very beginning who was going to be born, and who wasn't. He knew when we would be born and when we would die. He knew because He created us. But what goes on in between is up to us because He gave us the gift of free will. He wanted us to make the decisions in our lives. He wanted us to be able to decide things for ourselves, and then deal with the consequences. We are not perfect and don't always make the best choices for ourselves. A lot of the time we are in the wrong place at the wrong time and things happen to us that would never happened if we had chosen more wisely. A lot of times we never think ahead about what could happen. A lot of times we know that we shouldn't put ourselves into a position that could end out badly, but we do it anyway. There are even people out there that do what they do just to see if they can get away with it. But whatever the reason, if we choose badly, we have to suffer the consequences. And some times those consequences last our entire lives. We can't get out of it no matter what we do. Left to our own devices, we can mess up our entire lives. And God knows this. That is why Jesus came down from His throne in Heaven and was born to a woman that had not known a man. A virgin birth to let everyone know that this baby was very special. It was a gift from God to all the people of the world--past, present, and future. Jesus grew up the same way every child does. He has felt and faced everything that we face today. He was tempted with sin just as we are. But there is a difference. He remained sinless throughout everything He faced; including dying on the Cross to take away the sins of the world. He came to earth to offer us a way to live forever in Heaven with Him. But therein comes our free will. We do not have to accept God's gift of salvation. We can continue to live in sin and God will not stop us. Because He gave us free will, it's up to us to make the decision to take the gift of salvation or to reject it. Jesus died for everyone's sins; past, present, and future. And He loves us so much that we could never comprehend it. He created us to love and us to love Him. And if we reject His offer of redemption for our sins, there is no one to blame but ourselves. His grace gives us a way to accept His gift of salvation. There is nothing we can say or do to get into Heaven except through the Blood of Jesus Christ. We do not deserve this gift He offers us, but because He loves us He gives us an opportunity to accept Him as our Lord and Savior. If we do that, He forgives our sins as far as the East is from the West. And after He forgives us, He remembers the sins no more. And when you ask Jesus to become your Lord and Savior, there is nothing He asks of us except to love Him, and to share Him with everyone we can. He loved us so much that He endured so many people saying he was a fraud and treating him as if He were a common criminal. He indured all the horrible things men did to him, including dying on the cross because He loves us and He knew that if He didn't give us the opportunity to come to Him freely, we would not come to Him at all. Sin is so tempting and looks so good because satan knows that unless he appealed to our sin nature, he would never have any followers. We have free will so it's our choice as to whether we are going to follow Jesus, or whether we are going to follow satan. It has to be one or the other. And you can't just live a good life and expect to get into Heaven. You have to use your free will to accept Him and let Him be your Lord and Savior. And if you don't accept Christ, then you belong to the devil--there is no gray area. So I pray that you will make the right choice and choose Jesus. Your life on this earth and beyond depends on it.

    God's love is perfect. He loves you no matter what you have done, what you have said, who you have hurt, what you have stolen, what you have trashed, who you have killed, how many children you have that you don't provide financial support for, who you have raped, who you have beaten and left for dead, how many drugs you have taken. how much booze you have poured into your mouth, the parents who's hearts you have broken, no matter what.

     He loves you because He created you to have fellowship with, to love and for you to love him. He gave man a perfect place to live and only asked one thing, that he not partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But satan came to call and he convinced Eve to partake of the fruit and she saw it was good, so she took some to Adam and he ate as well. As soon as that happened they looked down and saw that they were naked, and hurried to make clothes to cover themselves.

     You see, he had given Adam and Eve free will. He did not want to control us. He wanted us to come to Him of our own free will. And because of the sin that took place in the Garden of Eden, men no longer were able to speak to God face to face, or walk in the Garden with Him. When God came he could not find Adam and Eve and asked them where they were. They said they were ashamed because they were naked. God knew they would've only been ashamed if they had partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

      And that is why a lot of people don't come to the Lord today. They are ashamed because they are naked--they have done something that they are not proud of, and they don't want God to know, but He knows everything. And He loves us just the same. All He wants us to do of our own free will is to come to Him, and, knowing that we are a sinner, ask forgiveness for our sins and really mean it. Repent of them--promise not to do these things again--and ask Jesus to come into your heart and become your Lord and Savior. Let him abide inside you, let him use you for His Glory. He will fill you with joy, a joy that no one can take from you. This joy will be there in good times and bad. Not everything will magically be wonderful, because a Christian is in the world, but not of the world. We will still face things that everyone faces, but we will have something not everyone has. A Lord and Savior that loves us and wants the best for us. He will get us through every hard time, every disaster. He will be there for us to lean on, to pray to, to cry out to, to trust in, and in every situation, whether it turns out the way we want it to or not, we will know that God's Will was done. And we will have a peace that defies all understanding. That is how much He loves us.