“For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)
Ask yourself this question, if the Almighty wants you to do something, is He going to force you to do it, either by making it impossible for you not to do it because of circumstances that He brings about or perhaps setting in place roadblocks that you cannot circumnavigate until the action is performed by you?
How much free will does the bondservant of the Lord have in this life? How many people do you know, perhaps even yourself, that perform deeds simply because you are commanded to in the Scriptures, you do not forsake the assembling of yourself with others, but there are many Sunday mornings when you would rather be someplace else, you place money in the plate as it passes by, but at best you have looked at your paycheck first, got the calculator out and checked exactly how much ten percent of it is. You are polite to people you do not like and call it loving your neighbor, but not once have you asked them, “Who do you say Jesus Christ is?”
Ask yourself this, is God having mercy on you or is He hardening you? How far away from a reprobate mind is that person who has hardened their own heart, and how much mercy should someone expect who only professes Him with their lips, who spent a lifetime in church but not in humble service in love to the One they say they serve?
At the burning bush Moses argued with the Almighty about his ability to do what the Lord was asking him to do, did God force him, or did Moses finally simply acquiesce to what the Lord wanted? Gideon put a fleece out, twice, and Judas Iscariot? “The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born.” (Mark 14:21)
Do you believe you have as much free will in your life as you think you do, if you have indeed been crucified with Christ, do you have a choice in the matter of how much you will serve and in what manner that service will be to Him? “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10)
Are you profitable or unprofitable, are there rewards waiting for you, crowns and treasure? Can a child of God say no to his Father in heaven?
Jeremiah and John the Baptist are just two examples of people chosen by the Almighty for a specific purpose before they were even born, could they have said no, or was their life predestined to go exactly as the Lord wanted it to?
Is yours?
I will offer only one last question to you in this short letter, can one who has truly been born-again chose not to serve the Lord and still proclaim to love Him?
I fear the world is filled with these people who do so, people who fulfill Matthew 15:8, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” They have deceived themselves, and unless the Living God has mercy upon them and shows them the truth of themselves, they will continue to be hardened, both by Him and of their own making.
I really do not like writing these types of letters, but if I do not, I will not be profitable, and I can think of few greater moments of sadness than hearing my Savior tell me I was not profitable to Him.
