Day 113: Our Part, God's Part

Reading: Psalm 50:1-15

Everything in this world belongs to God. All of the animals, all of our resources, and even the possessions we have acquired with the money God has blessed us with- His money, in fact. God is in control of everything, as He placed the sun and tells it when to set. 

God does, however, give us a role in praising Him, as He asks us for thankfulness and gratitude, acknowledging His provision in our lives. 

He also asks that we honor Him, and praise Him for how wonderful and mighty He is. Displaying this type of worshipful awe will only draw us nearer to Him. 

And God asks us to call on Him when we face troubles. Relying and trusting in Him will help you carry your burdens and guide you throughout. 

Though God owns everything and has power over everything, we still have a role to play in praising Him, as He did not create us to be robots that are forced to praise and follow Him. 

Reading: Luke 22:1-38

There has always been a question about predestination vs. free will. And in this reading alone, we can pick out 3 examples of how God does His part, and we have our parts. 

Judas- though he was chosen to be one of Jesus' disciples, we read that "Satan enters him" and he is tempted in betraying Jesus. Though Jesus' death was a prophesied event, the fact that Judas was the betrayer was how Satan thought he was getting the upper hand. Judas decided on his own to follow that temptation and take the actions to betray Jesus for the pay off. No one, not even Jesus' closest followers, is immune to temptation.

Simon Peter- we see how strong and loyal Simon Peter is to Jesus, as he is convinced that he would never let Jesus down. But Satan sure has a sneaky way of getting into the most loyal followers, as Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him that very night. This can be a tough thing to grasp, as we see how this plays our in terms of free will and predestination. Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him, but Peter made that choice, and Jesus knew that would be his choice. 

We can also see a powerful example of prayer here, as Jesus prays for Peter's faith to not fail. And we go on to read later on in our study the mighty work Peter does for the church. Prayer is powerful, and Jesus practiced it wholeheartedly. God has a role, a big one, in our lives, but we also have the role of taking action and how we will proceed. 

Jesus- Jesus Himself is a prime example of free will vs. predestination. Jesus knew His fate and His Father's will. Though He could always ditch the plan, as we will read later, how He asks His Father to take away this burden, He knows that He must carry out this huge plan for all of humanity, as He is the only One suited to do so. That is why there is an unfailing, immense love here. 

Though all of the topics on free will vs. predestination are hard to grasp, we can clearly see that God has a role in our lives, and we do as well. We are always given free will and the opportunity to choose for ourselves the actions we will take, but God sees e big picture, and knows how things will turn out. Stand firm on what you know, and don't get hung up or agonize over the things we don't quite know. God is good and that is all that matters.

Reading: Joshua 3:1-5:12

There is a balance in preparing and providing for ourselves and counting on God's preparation and provision. We read here how Joshua prepared the Israelites for crossing the Jordan, and told them to prepare themselves. We have seen this theme throughout their journey as they needed to set themselves apart for The Lord and His instruction. We need to prepare ourselves since we are living in a culture that doesn't always follow the ways of The Lord, by sticking to His direction only, and indulging in the delights of Him. Because of our security and trust in Him, we will be provided for in mighty ways. God provided just enough manna for the people, and never over indulged them. The view of materialism in our culture and having all we want makes it hard to grasp the concept of "just enough" and feeling satisfied in what we have. 

Lean on God's security. Forget about the security of others and of things. God's love and provision is enough, just enough. Prepare yourself to indulge in His direction and path. 

There is a balance between our part and God's part in life decisions. To an extent we need to consider our part in preparing ourselves for God's will. We also need to make decisions for ourselves, as God didn't create us as robots that do everything He says and asks of us. When we open our hearts to Him, that is something we decide to do. God's part will come into play when we do our part and stay open to Him.


(Photo Credit: http://gdwm.org/index.php/2012/03/our-privileged-responsibility-2/)