God's invitation is open, warm, kind, and genuine.
There's a centuries-long debate between Christians over predestination and free will. Does God predestine our fate? Or do we get to choose?
I haven't worked it out with technical precision, but I feel the best contributors on both sides are wrestling with two great truths: God's initiative is primary, and our response to God is important.
I find solace in what Paul stated in Romans 11:33-36:
*"Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!... For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever."*
Clearly, God is sovereign. That's why this course is called God's Uncommon Pursuit. Yet what amazes me is that God doesn't force himself upon us. Rather, God invites us to respond to his love.
In Isaiah 55:1-3 we read God's announcement:
*"Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good."*
**Who gives the true bread? Who satisfies our thirst? God's initiative is clearly primary.**
Yet at the same time, we see God pleading with his people to come to him. He asks us to evaluate the emptiness of our lives apart from him. He exhorts us to pay attention to who he is.
What strikes me is the humility and tenderness of an all-powerful God. Consider the raw capacity needed to create approximately 200 billion trillion stars. Then with earnestness but sweetness, God says, "Come... come... pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live!"
**God's invitation is open, warm, kind, and genuine. Let's respond to God's invitation, and come to Jesus.**
Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. I will make a permanent covenant with you on the basis of the faithful kindnesses of David.
How do you hold the tension between God's sovereignty and human responsibility?
What does God's invitation mean to you personally?
What are you 'spending' your life on that doesn't satisfy? What would it mean to 'come' to God instead?
Accept God's invitation. Come to Him in prayer right now—thirsty, hungry, needy.
What are you pursuing that doesn't satisfy? Ask God to redirect your desires toward Him.
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