You lead, I'll follow.

The truth of God's control and power over every minute, object, person, and element, reminded me that not only is God in control of having His way but that He controls the wills of our hearts to do what we do each day.  Where we work, what we eat, who we meet, what we say, what we hear, what we do, how long we work out, how long we take a nap, when we move houses, when we get fired or quit our jobs, when we go to another school, when we quit school, how we dream, and whether it will rain or be sunny.  He is engaging in each activity with intentional power to reveal himself as God in every way. 

Free will is the freedom of our will.  What is more free than to be bound by the law and power of God?  What is more free than to have no choice but God's choice?  Is freedom the ability to choose God's way or is it the ability to be chosen by God for His word to be fulfilled?

Freedom of the will sounds more like the ability to be chosen not the ability to choose.  If I had the ability to choose my destiny I would be screwed by now.  But no, our free will is a gift of God, just like our food, our families, and the hairs on our head.  I feel more empowered to believe that this gift, called free will, is no more special than all of God's other gifts that reside beneath the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. 

In other words, your destiny or productivity in life does not depend on your free will to choose, but upon the sovereign will of God in whom you rest securely.  Being enamored by every one of His gifts along with the freedom of being chosen to do and will what God controls.  I praise God that He uses me for such high purposes as His desires!  

I partake of the desires of God, and this is not something any created being could will himself to enter into.  No, this was a bestowed gift upon me, to freely will What His heart wills! 

So, whether I am criticized or praised by other people it has no effect upon the will of God.  If I am flustered by these appraisals or criticisms it is because I begin to look away from God as the source and to my own works or words as being the cause for these responses.  But the cause is always the highest source from which all actions follow.  I am not the cause of any action, whether that is my or others' sin or good works.  I am the recipient of God's redeeming love, and I walk in fear of Him alone.  

This might sound to some to mean that I take liberty in my sin, but it goes further than that.  While I do take Liberty in my sin, I take joy in the grace that liberates me from sin all the more.  This grace is not one that leaves room for sin to abound, but that snuffs it out by turning the desire for it toward a desire for God from whom flowed this amazing Grace.  God is the cause of this grace that had worked itself apart from the sin that God allowed to happen so that I would taste and see His love for me.

So what am I saying? Haha

I'm thinking that whether I'm rich or poor, physically in pain or healthy, joyful or sorrowful, whatever condition I'm in I will look to the source of these circumstances or feelings and ask my Father "will you show me what You're doing?"  But if I get no reply or nothing that eases my expectation, I will remember this "free will" of mine.  That I am freely chosen to walk into the heart of the Almighty God and be doing what He wills though I myself may not know the entirely of His ways.  

I can only watch from this place of security and rest that whether I do this or that, my life is a living testimony to others that, when they look at me, they cannot help but be in awe of the beauty of God.  

If I'm poor I know God can make even the wealthiest person turn from his or her ways to God.  If I'm rich God can use my stewardship of money to show the poor His love. Or if I'm middle class, God can use my "free will" to reveal himself to people of any status, because it matters not what I have but who has me. 

God is sovereign in that he has me in Is hands.  He sets my feet where they are to go.  He does not let me wander from His will.  He secures my paths.  He leads me by still waters.  He feeds me. He clothes me.  He fills my heart with every good emotion.  He keeps me occupied with joy even in toiling.  He gifts me with the "freedom of my will" to do His will. 

I am in the heart of my Father. 

I might forget this one day, but Thank God He does not forget it! Haha.

To know this is less than to have this.  I will always have this, even if I may not always know it at the conscious part of my thinking.  So even in that, it's so awesome.  

You lead, I'll follow...even when I don't know it!  Haha.  Awesome.  

Kept by the boundaries of the Father's will,

Jmegrey