Why God Doesn't Get What He Wants | The Odyssey Online
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Why God Doesn't Get What He Wants

His Path versus Our Path

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Why God Doesn't Get What He Wants
The Gospel Coalition

God thinks it would bring great joy to the people of Wilmore, Kentucky if it rained tomorrow morning, so He makes it happen.

God got what He wanted.

God wants you to be early to work the next day so that you may have time to spend in prayer with Him before you start your job, so He makes every light green on your drive to work to allow you that extra time to do so.

God got what He wanted.

God wants a specific person to become a pastor so he can preach the Gospel to hundreds of people and lead them to Christ. But this person rejects God's calling on his life and turns away from the church and lives his life in sin, never taking up the role as a pastor.

God did not get what He wanted.

When God created mankind on the sixth day of creation He gifted us with the ability of free will. Because of this we can choose what we do in our lives. We are not living out a sort of "programmed" lifestyle that God has dictated to us. As a result of this we can choose whether or not we accept God's gracious gift of eternal life, or reject it, choose to follow His calling on our lives, or choose our own calling.

And this often times happens here on earth. People choose their own desires over that of God's and leave his ideas in the trash. As a result, God doesn't get what He wants.

God is looking for true love, true devotion, and true worship. He knows if He forced it upon you that it would not be truly genuine and not true love of Him. It would be a forced, robotic, false love. And that does not bring God glory. Forced worship and love does not bring God any true glory.

This is where the importance of our free will comes into play.

We have the ability to receive or reject God's plan for our lives. For instance, in my life God has called me to become a pastor. Now, I can do the "Christian" thing and receive God's calling on my life and pursue a pastoral job in a church. Or I can reject God's call on my life and do whatever it is that I wish to do. After all, I possess free will.

To help, I will use the famous example of a relationship to shine some light on this.

Do you truly love your significant other, or (if you're single like me) will you love your significant other when you find them? Perhaps you have heard the words "don't say you love me, show me you love me." If you love someone, truly love someone, than you know that simply saying it is not enough, you must show that you love them. You do things for your significant other because you love them. They ask, and you, more often than not, do it. Because love is more than just words, it is also action.

Now flip this around. If you love God, and I mean truly love God, the kind of sold-out, utterly devoted to Him kind of love we should have, then wouldn't you do what He has told you to do? If God wants you to become a pastor, or a missionary, or a teacher, or a musician, shouldn't you do it because you love God and you trust Him? Don't you want to give Him what He wants? Don't you want to give Him your life?

Briefly take a look at the life of the prophet Jonah from the Bible. God called him to preach to Nineveh, but rather than accepting this role, Jonah fled. He did this because of a lack of trust in God. A lack of trust typically stems from a lack of love. It was only after Jonah was saved from the belly of the whale did his love of God pour out and he accepted God's calling on his life. And look at what happened! Because of his willingness to accept God's plan for him the entire city of Nineveh repented and was spared God's wrath!

When you trust what God has planned for you and you do it, amazing things will happen.

At the end of the day, God has a plan for us that He wants us to follow. But our free will gives us a choice, choose God or choose me, choose life or choose death, choose my own sinful will or God's perfect pleasing will? Our free will shows God how much we truly love Him. How devoted we are to Him.

I guess what I am trying to say is:

How much do you love God?


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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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