The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Psalm 43:10-11
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,
who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Thanks to everyone who responded with questions and comments on the topic of God's will; please continue! We will stay with this topic until we address each comment, and probably a little longer. This note is from my pal Randy:
"Good morning! This verse is frequently misquoted as "All things work for good ..." which is one of the fallacies leading to great confusion about question #2. That's my only contribution at this point ... otherwise I'd spend my whole workday typing on the subject. Randy" What a great point, and what an important one; "all things" are not good, however, to those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose, God can make good things happen.
OK, you might ask, what is the difference? Consider those 'teachable moments' parents often use. A child runs into the street and almost gets hit; or they get picked on by a bully; or they watch TV and do not do their homework. Are any of these things (or thousands of probably better examples) they type of thing a good parent would encourage a child to do? Of course not. But a good parent will use these types of situations to move the child into a place of learning and maturation. Be careful, respond with kindness, decisions have consequences.
This is, perhaps, an oversimplification of Randy's point, and maybe we should talk more about it later. But there is a bottom line: God does not cause any evil, but He will use those moments to show us a better way.
God's will is that things would go well for us; our will leads us astray. If we will turn back to Him, He will work things for our good.
Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Psalm 27:11
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. Psalm 143:10
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Questions:
1. What do you think of this perspective?
1. What do you think of this perspective?
2. Do you think God causes all things to happen?
3. How does He work our bad decisions into good?
THINKER'S THOUGHTS ON FREEDOM
"The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free. Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk."C.S. Lewis "We are told in scripture that with God all things are possible. But Lewis states that this does not mean that God can do anything. God cannot, for example, answer nonsensical questions.He cannot do both of two mutually exclusive things; for example, He cannot create creatures with free will and at the same time withhold free will from them."
Armand M. Nicholi
"Grace is the free, undeserved goodness and favor of God to mankind."Matthew Henry
"Free grace can go into the gutter, and bring up a jewel!"
Charles Spurgeon
"God, having placed good and evil in our power, has given us full freedom of choice; He does not keep back the unwilling, but embraces the willing."
John Chrysostom "
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all."
Martin Luther
"Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved. Now choose what you want."Martin Luther "God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having."
C.S. Lewis
"The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God."
C.S. Lewis
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