Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for giving Your children the gift of free-will choice. What a wonderful and unselfish gift, and by giving it to us You’re saying, “I want my children to be happy. That’s why I’m giving them My Word. It contains all the information they will ever need to live a righteous life. I hope they choose to live by my Word, because if they do, they will live a life of love. I want this for them, but it’s their choice.” It warms my heart to know that You have faith in us this way. We have done a lot to let You down, but still, You keep trusting us with Your Word.
You will not automatically dump it into our minds, because that would not be free-will. You have created us in such a way that we can make any choice or decision we desire, but You hope that we’ll choose love. You tell us in 1John 2:6(NLT), “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” You are so pleased when we make a decision that lines up with the example of Your Son, Jesus Christ. This means that our will is to be like You; like Father, like sons and daughters.
I don’t know anyone that wants to be in a relationship with someone that doesn’t have the will or desire to be with them. We all want to be appreciated and valued by a person that truly enjoys being in our presence. You’re the same way, God. You want us to enjoy being in Your company. Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” This is the only path that I want to walk, Heavenly Father, the path of life that leads to the fullness of joy in You.
Genesis 6 shows us how disappointed You are when we don’t honor the gift of free-will. During this time in the bible, people were living lifespans of hundreds of years. You gave humanity long lives so that they could enjoy fellowshipping with You, and get to know You better. Instead, they used the time to see how much sin they could get away with. You said in Genesis 6:3(NLT), “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.” I am sorry we disappointed You, Heavenly Father; that instead of using our free-will to grow spiritually and spread Your magnificent Word and love, we chose sin and grieved your Heart.
We should never use Your gifts for selfish gain. You gave us free-will in hopes that we would use it to be of service to Your Kingdom; not to be of service to the enemy. When we make the choice to go left, and Your Word clearly tells us to go right, we are choosing to disobey You. And when we disobey You, we’re making a statement to the entire universe that we don’t believe what You’ve told us in Your Word; we don’t trust that You’ve told us what is best for us, and that You’ve told us the truth.
In Genesis 2:17, You commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because if they did, they would be doomed. You told Adam that if he ate of this tree, “You will surely die.” In Genesis 3:4(NLT), the devil told Eve, “You will not surely die.” Adam and Eve doubted the truth that You told them because the devil added one word, and that one word was all it took for them to go against You. It got them to forfeit the wonderful destiny You had in store for them. Heavenly Father, help us all to be very careful to obey Your Word, because the devil tries to persuade us to doubt You. The things that we love most, or the things that are tempting for us, this is what the devil tries to use to tear our lives apart. Help us to be aware of the enemy’s devices.
Through the Apostle Paul, You said in Hebrews 10:36(NLT), “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.” Thank you so much, Heavenly Father, for the gift of free-will, because it allows us to connect to You through faith, and tap into Your promises! You did not make us robots or puppets. Genesis 1:26 tells us that You created us in Your image, in Your likeness. You have free-will, and You gifted it to us, so that we can choose to live for You and receive all the joy and promises of Your Word.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Thank You for the Gift of Free-Will”, written by K Lizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2018. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.