Free Will and God’s Goodness Part 2
Free Will and God’s Goodness Part 2
You can find Part 1 here: Free Will and God’s Goodness Part 1
In Part 1, I defined, from my point of view, ‘Free Will’, ‘Evil Intent of My Heart’, ‘Sovereignty’, ‘Omnipotence’ with Grace coming next in part 2.
So how did these concepts and ideas frame my conclusion that “My Free Will and Evil intentions of my heart brought me to an understanding that God is good in all He does?”
GRACE
The answer is GRACE, which I understand as “Unmerited Favor”, “Undeserved Love”, “Something I cannot earn”. That undeserved favor, love, and gift lie a key to it all.
I call that the moment in the closet.
A moment that I believe everyone in Humanity has. That day when we are all by ourselves, alone, in our private place with nothing but our thoughts and desires and questions.
It is in that moment of angst and pain and confusion God shows up.
He was there all along…in creation, the cry of newborn life, the smile of a loving friend, an endless night sky or the dawning of a new day. He, the Omnipotent God of this universe, was in it all. That private moment the ultimate question comes to us. “Am I going to choose to believe and trust Him, or am I going to trust my limited finite mind and Deny and fight Him?”
This I know to be the ultimate question for myself and all humanity. It defines everything about us and ultimately directs our every decision and direction of life.
We are either created by an Intelligent Designer outside of ourselves or we become the god of ourselves.
How can it be any other way?
We either accept the idea that we were created, or we become our little deity that runs around “thinking” we either know it all or can figure it out. The latter of those two is what brought me my greatest fear and insecurity!
Free Will and God’s Goodness Part 2
I came to understand how frail, and finite and in so many ways unable to navigate this thing called life. But put in the framework of the idea that there is a God who created me for communion and purpose with a desire to love me and see my potential to love was the ultimate answer.
It humbles me and brings me peace knowing that I don’t have to traverse through this life on my own or in my strength. But instead, I have a God who created me and loves me and cares for me and fills me and wants me to live and breathe and move with Him.
What a great peace that has brought to me.
Not that I am any less of a Man by submitting to God. May it never be! Instead, I have become a complete Man, whole and with purpose.
As it has been said there was a hole in my heart that needed to be filled and the only thing that could fill it was God. He came to me in the person of Jesus who by taking on this world and living a perfect life also took on the debt of my evil heart and paid the penalty for sinful actions and justified me through His death on the cross and my acceptance of Him as my Savior and Lord.
This has been made perfect for me in the fact that I have a Free Will to either accept or reject God and His provision of Rebirth and Salvation through Jesus. I also know now that this is the source of all evil in the world.
For since God is love…
…and embodies all good and we have a will to choose Him then the opposite of that has to be hate and all evilness when we choose to reject Him.
Once again, I see this in my own life and will refer to my two daughters who love me. As a father, a child’s love is the ultimate gift that can be given back to me. But the love my daughters have shown to me came by their own free will. If I could force that love would it have been love?
If my children had chosen not to love me would I, as a good father, pursue them and try to have a relationship with them so that they may love me?
Free Will and God’s Goodness Part 2
The answers are obvious!
Of course, real love cannot be forced. And being a loving father, I would pursue my children and attempt to have a relationship and bestow my good love upon them so that they would love me.
It is this understand of these two principals which can translate to all human communion with one another that I came to see why God gave me a Free Will and why he allows Mankind to choose Him or reject Him.
As much as it pains me to be in this imperfect world and all its ills, I don’t have to be of this world anymore. I don’t have to be my own little god who does everything for his own desires and narcissistic purpose.
Instead, I can submit to an omnipotent God who is all good and pure love. In that reality, I can be patient, kind, gentle, humble, hopeful, and caring for my fellow man. I can endure with and care for those in need or who seek truth and I can do it without fear of failure or need to succeed.
In the end, for me, it is not about my status or accomplishments. Instead, my hope and purpose for life are to be the Gospel of Jesus through my life and the way I live.
This is not to say that I still don’t have questions, or struggle with life. On the contrary, not a day goes by that I don’t find myself at odds with myself or this world. The difference now is I have a foundation and an understanding that I can and do continually turn back to.
Because of that, I have found true peace and joy.
I will close with a prayer that has brought me much peace and continues to speak to me. It is the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi. What I love about this prayer is that it empties me of myself and all of my selfish desires and will. May all who read this find true peace and true joy as well in the one true God.
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow charity;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
and Where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Free Will and God’s Goodness Part 2
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Two Measures Foolish are a Christian Apologetics group of writers that write from a Christian Perspective and Christian World View using the Bible as our core.
We all travel on an individual journey on this planet earth that God has put into motion from the day we were formed in our mothers’ body. We all have deep questions that need to be answered. Why are we here? Is this all there is?
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