Ruth 1v1-18 – Are you stuck?
Kent Dobson
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Beautiful teaching, loved it! The question it raised for me is: Where does free will end and God’s providence begin?
Looking at past events in my life, I can clearly see where I made choices (not always the best choices) and God used them for good.
Very good question Deb. As far as free will and God’s providence beginning goes, I personally look at it like this:
God has a map of our lives. He sees each individual fork in the road, each decision we will ever have to make. Whatever decision we make, whatever road we take, God will act accordingly. God knows what we will do in that sense, but also doesn’t know in another sense. We still have to make those choices, God allows us to.
Have you ever read a choose your own adventure novel? Those kinds of books have the reader flipping to certain pages at certain times in the novel to choose what direction the story will take. After the reader has read the book thoroughly, he or she will know each individual outcome of the branching paths, but its still up to him or her to make those decisions, to choose what path they want the story to take. I believe God is like that in a sense, He’s the person who has read the choose your own adventure novel for each of our lives, and He’s encouraging us and guiding us to take the best possible route. But even if we make mistakes, God still knows how that can be used for good and is willing to do so
That’s just my two cents though, take it with a grain of salt.