Is God's Love A Choice?

Is Gods Love A Choice

Let’s discuss more on the subject of prayer. Some think that prayer is useless if not an unimportant part of the Christian life. That our time could be better spent gaining for ourselves in the present world. They feel that since God knows all; that he is the God of the past, present and future; prayer is an unnecessary tool. If God already knows what is to happen, praying to God is useless persuasion; fore nothing will change God’s foreknowledge of events that will transpire in one’s life. Is our daily communication with God time well spent?

Is God’s love an actual choice, is an election of grace ours to make, or has our eternity been foretold from the beginning of the world? Do you understand what I’m asking; do we have a free choice to decide between Heaven and Hell? Some Christian groups believe that the almighty creator from the beginning of time has decided our eternal fate. If man has a free will to decide between good and evil does he have a choice concerning his eternal destination, has our eternity all but been decided? Is so, then why would man concern himself with the expectation that God can save all man from the curse of sin?

We have asked many good questions and the answer hinges on what god’s word tells us of our human experience and that of God’s will for our lives.

Romans 8:28-30, “God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling his people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

People get tangled in the subject of election or choice when they attempt to harmonize this theme with the foreknowledge of God. They drift to the conclusion that his foreknowledge determines all human destinies, whether redemptive or reprobate (that is to say good or evil). They are telling us that it is impossible to deflect the prearranged Word of God and ransom ourselves from the inevitable. They presume that because of this prayer yields us little benefit.

Let’s investigate this theorem by searching through the biography of David prior to the time he was King of Israel. He was in hiding, running from the pursuit of King Saul. He was a fugitive living in Keilah with 600 followers. He offered those who lived their protection from marauding Philistines who raided the countryside taking their herds and flocks. The people are grateful but God knows the human heart of man. He knows man better than man knows himself and what will happen if situations prevail against him. Whatever may happen, David is not presumptuous, he goes to the one who knows all and relies on the providence of God over what he thinks or feels.

I Samuel 23, verses 1-13:

Then they told David, saying, "Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are plundering the threshing floors." So David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines, and deliver Keilah.” But David’s men said to him, "Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the ranks of the Philistines?" Then David inquired of the Lord once more. And the Lord answered him and said, "Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand." So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David delivered the inhabitants of Keilah. Now it came about, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. When it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, Saul said, "God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars." So Saul summoned all the people for war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. Now David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here." Then David said, "O Lord God of Israel, Thy servant has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Thy servant has heard?" And the Lord said, "He will come down." Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the Lord said, "They will surrender you."