does God "choose" to "take" people home? to put it bluntly, did God want my friend to die in a car crash a year and 7 months ago? Did he pre-determine that death for her?
When i brought up these questions (not specifically) at home group on wednesday, everyone had something to say. most disagreed with what i thought, and i didn't articulate it very well. it was off-topic, so we left it for the night but i'm still curious.
someone said it wasn't very hopeful to think that God's will for our life wasn't that specific. I think it's more hopeful to believe God's will is not limited to my ability to make specific decisions. for example, if God's will for my life is so specific that he wants me here at university, right now, this year, what would happen if I had decided to take a year off and do YWAM or something else instead? would i be outside God's will? how do we define God's will? his good and perfect will.
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i used to want all the answers. i hated questions. now i believe in the beauty of questioning. is my faith in God strong enough to handle questions? i hope so.
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what if God's will is broader than we think? i know he knows every decision we make. but does that mean he has planned it all for us? i know God knows whn i'll die; but does that mean he chose for me to die then? isn't death a result of the evil in the world, which is a result of free will? i know prayers of intercession bring healing and change humans and events; but does that mean God planned all along that we would intercede and he would respond?
God is all knowing.
i think God operates on a different level than humans. i think we see 2-D. we measure time like a graph on paper. God does not belong only to our 2-D graph paper. he has dimensions beyond the paage. beyond 3-D. time to God is different.
how does this affect our ability and free will in making decisions? he knows, but is it planned? is it predetermined?
if there was no free will, no choice in the garden, there would be no love.
if we believe God has pre-chosen times for our acticities, even our death, do we believe in free will - our choice to love God or not?
it is the will for God for us to love: to bear fruit and reflect his glory; to choose justice and mercy as our lifestyles; to embrace his bride, the Church.
it is the will of God for us to know him and love him and trust him. this fills me with hope. knowing that no matter where i go, i can "do the will of him who sent me," as Jesus did.
i haven't mentioned the Word in all of this. i'm still searching it out. any thoughts?
2 comments:
Now what was the question again?
Just kidding.
You remind me of Tarah. She has a way of taking a subject and bombarding it with so many questions it leaves you spinning and realizing, "Oh my goodness, I don't know anything."
I don't think God really expects us to get our heads all the way around His sovereignty. His view is really way bigger than ours. All we can do is go with what we know . . . God loves us. His plans for us are good. He wants us to know Him and he wants to know us. He expects us to pray, because it matters. Prayer changes things. He desires that we be obedient to do what we know he wants and say no to what we know is wrong. Don't grow weary in doing good. Know that He is a rewarder of those who seek him. I am sure you could continue this list of things you know to be true about your relationship with God.
Questions are good, but we musn't let the things we don't understand get in the way of always saying YES God. I love you. You are good.
Hey Marce, I haven't read your journal in a while and decided to visit you! I like these questions; well, we all know that I love to throw out the hard stuff every now and then. I too get super super caught up in the whole "wrapping my head around..." ordeal. Yup, been stuck a time or two too. For this particular question, I have chosen to rest in the knowledge that my existence is to honour and praise God. After all, shouldn't all creation sing His praise? Sure I do. I just don't like questions left unanswered; "Yeah, way to go Adam and Eve at that knowledge tree thing." I think I rest in knowing that God places a plan out for me. I think he knows all that going to happen. Well, I know he knows. He just does. He's God after all. The question is usually, where do I fit in? I am happy knowing that in God's "predetermined plan for me" he provides my points of choosing where he offers me the free will to do the right thing. If I choose the wrong thing, I usually know. Oops, I tell myself. I think that even though God knows all, sees all, etc. He delights in seeing us choose the right one, or returning back to him when we choose the wrong one. I think God focusses more on us, rather than what the plans are. He just likes seeing us come close to Him. I think that's all for now. Love you Marce.
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