God In The Living

THE TRUTH IS God is in control, AND we have a choice. He made the plan of salvation before founding the world (Ephesians 1:4). But that plan depended on people. He is the future. He knew who would obey and seek Him and who would not. Still, He gave men a choice, and He abides by that. He is God. We need to say this to ourselves and stop giving Him human failures. He is perfect, actually perfect. He is eternal. This is not a length of time but a quality. He is the Highest of the High. There is none above Him. He consults no one, in fact, needs no consultation. He asks us to seek Him, not give Him advice. The Spirit is His breath, not His Counselor but ours. Jesus is His Son. He (Jesus) is human, but He is holy and without sin. He did not sin and now cannot sin (Hebrews 4:15).

They are nothing like the image in the church.

“Why do you say this, Suzanne?”

Because when death stared me in the face, God spoke, and He was so much better than what I’d heard in the church. Kinder, gentler, more understanding. He isn’t worried about anything. Not the devil. Not cancer. Not nations. He weeps … over the beauty of a song, over the birth of a child, over man’s ignorance. Over His people. Then He laughs at what people say God shouldn’t laugh at. And replies in a way people say God wouldn’t reply.

We’ve built buildings and altars of fantastic stature, and He’s worthy of all of them. We’ve painted countless wrong images of our Savior, and He adores our efforts. He’s so very understanding. He lived among us, ate with us, died like us. Greater than us. And was God in the living, God in the dying, God in the in between. God resurrected. So we could be like Him. That was God’s goal, His decision, and He controlled all of it. Yet men choose to believe or to disbelieve.

We’ve made two different sides of the coin, opposite theologies, when they are more the same artwork. Where some of us say, “God is in control,” and others say, “Nuh uh, we have a choice.” It is both. Where else is faithfulness, but in that He has the answers and keeps His Word? Where else is our trust placed, but in His consistency? That He loves always to His greatest extent. And where else is our reliance but that inside that love we can live? Yes, He expects obedience. He desires us to choose Him. But He keeps looking at us, keeps speaking to us, when we mess up. Keeps mourning those who don’t choose Him and so fall away. He loves in the choosing. He chooses the unloving.

“… just as it is written: ‘The Christlike will live by choosing what is right in governance of themselves, and by trusting God with how things turn out.’” (Romans 1:17 Remedy)

“For God did not make us to let us go and be separated from him, but to be his—united to him in love through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9 Remedy)

“May the Lord lead your hearts and minds into the ever-increasing experience of God’s love and Christ’s unwavering reliability.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5 Remedy)

Image by ivke32 from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com