THY WILL BE DONE IS SOMETIMES A PRAYER, NOT ALWAYS A DECREE

THY WILL BE DONE IS SOMETIMES A PRAYER, NOT ALWAYS A DECREE
(ask yourself, how do these ideas effect my life?)

NOT DIVINE FIAT
When good things do not happen, I often hear people say, "When God is ready, it will happen."
As if God is the One Who is delaying good things.
As if God is precluding His own will.
As if God is responsible for bad things happening.
As if God is at fault and men are not responsible.

NOT UNILATERAL
Certainly God has an agenda, a schedule, a plan, but,
God is not sitting at a celestial computer, manipulating a sovereign joystick.
God is not micromanaging every affair or event in life, overriding man's responsibility and accountability.
God is not the supreme "programmer," and humans are not automatons or sprites or avatars.
God is not static, but dynamic.

CO-WORKERS, WORKERS TOGETHER
We are free moral agents. God has the final say, and He rules over everything, but under that rule, He gives man the power, the right, the ability to determine his own destiny, within the allowable control of God's determinate counsel. This present life is the vestibule or entryway to eternity. As we trust and serve God in this present evil world we will be prepared for eternity. In fact, our internal and eternal direction is set during our sojourn on earth. We don't have a choice in what eternity has to offer, but we do have a choice concerning what God offers us in eternity.

CALLED AND CHOSEN
So, we must not be sucked into the popular fatalism of the day, which says that everything that happens is God's perfect will, and we cannot do anything about it. Though God will not be dethroned, neither will He excuse the failures and sins of men, based on our misunderstanding of His sovereign rule. We are co-workers together with God, not simply lifeless pawns on the chess board of life.
We are called to know Him and seek His will.
We are called to trust Him.
We are called to do His will.
We are called to pray.
We are called to be faithful, even when others do not obey Him.
As we answer Him by faith, we become the chosen.