FREEDOM TO CHOOSE
Yesterday I heard a man use
the phrase: “God is in control.” He has the right to use it because he has
surrendered his life to the Lord’s leadership on a daily basis. For him, using
that phrase is accurate and justified. But for too many people it is an excuse
for apathy. “Well, I can’t do that much anyway. I just let God be in control.”
But it doesn’t work that way. If God were in control of everything, Adam and
Eve would have never sinned; David wouldn’t have killed Uriah to steal his
wife; Peter wouldn’t have denied Jesus three times.
There are certain things
that God is in control of, but we need to be sure we are not shirking our
responsibilities and apathetically turning over the tasks at hand to God
because we are too lazy or afraid to take responsibility for what He’s given us
to do.
God gave humanity freedom
to choose. God inspired Joshua to make the people decide: “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you
this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua
24:15).
When the Israelites came
to the edge of the Promised Land in eleven days, Moses sent out twelve spies to
check out the situation. God brought them to the land He’d promised them. But
there were obstacles.
When God brings us to a
new place in our walk with Him, there are going to be obstacles, but that’s no
reason to give up and lamely excuse ourselves by saying: “Well God’s in
control, so I’ll just sit here and see what He does.” There’s a time for
waiting, but if the Lord is leading us and we’re yielding to Him, we may
discover that there are more times He calls us to action than the times He asks
us to sit on the sidelines.
The Israelites were
supposed to go into the Promised Land after eleven days, but since ten of the
twelve spies saw obstacles, the people got afraid and wouldn’t go in. And God
couldn’t make them go in. God doesn’t force us. He gave us freedom of will. The
Lord wanted them to be bold and act, but they wouldn’t do it. (See Numbers 13
and 14.)
Fear and apathy go hand in
hand. “The slothful man saith, ‘There is a lion
without, I shall be slain in the streets.’ As the door
turneth upon his hinges, so doth the
slothful upon his bed” (Prov. 26:13-14).
“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold
nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth,” says the Lord in Revelation 3:16.
If we are going to use the
phrase, “God is in control,” let’s mean it in our personal lives and use it in
the right way, because we have chosen to surrender all to Him, daily yielding
to His every call to action. Let’s sign with Him in contract, be with Him in
action.
Be bold. No more sitting
on the sideline thinking God is going to do all the work. We’re in a team and
we all need to go forward utilizing our unique talents for our God and His
kingdom.
Love,
Carolyn
My most recent book, BIBLE
LESSONS FROM NATURE, is full of great short stories of animals, and how God
utilizes their unique character to teach us about Himself and our world. Fun
summer reading!
It’s $15 on Amazon, but I
have copies here at home for $10. Send your $10 and address to me at 4401 El
Parque Ave. Las Vegas NV 89102 if you’d like a signed copy for only $10 😊
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