Throughout the Bible, it is clear that people have choice:
- If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. (Josh. 24:15)
- Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her. (Prov. 8:10-11)
- Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. (John 7:17)
Giving us free will was risky on God's part because we have a tendency to misuse it.
People have made such horrible moral choices that there was a time in human history when God was sorry He made us.
"The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled" (Gen. 6:5-6).
That's how big a risk God took in giving us free will: that we would so grossly misuse it that He would regret having put us here.
God can't be any clearer that He created us with free will and that we can use it however we want, even to our own demise.
One of author Jim Butcher's stories contains this insight: "God isn't about making good things happen to you, or bad things happen to you. He's all about you making choices—exercising the gift of free will."
Understanding these six aspects of God's sovereignty can help calm our fears, anxieties, and worries about life on this planet, especially when evil seems to be triumphing over good and we suffer in ways that are undeserved.
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