SOVEREIGNTY AND PREDESTINATION

SOVEREIGNTY AND PREDESTINATION

                Once upon a time there was a great football coach who was a time traveler. Every year he would travel 4 years into the future to see who his great players and champions would be; and then he would return to normal time to train them.

                Many times the young freshman college students, not knowing their future greatness, would wonder why the coach took so much interest in them and why he pushed them so hard. Sometimes it seemed like the coach was actually picking on them, goading them, encouraging them, pushing them almost to the point of breaking. It didn’t seem fair somehow, for while the other players spent their evenings drinking beer and chasing women, the coach held them to a higher standard actually working them hard when everyone else was having fun.

                They did not know that in 4 years, they would be football champions that would go on to play for the NFL making millions of dollars and becoming inspirational examples for other young players who would begin their training on their freshman year.

                Sometimes we wonder why God pushes us so hard. Why does He hold us to such high standards? Why does He take such an interest in us? His disciplines are not always pleasant and we sometimes squirm under His firm hand.

                While it seems that so many Christians are just partying along having a good time in worship and praise, getting by with a minimal amount of knowledge and understanding, He is getting some of us up at the wee hours of morning to seek His face and to probe the depths of His character and purpose.

                If you are one of these that the Coach seems to be pushing a little harder than most, don’t give up. If the trials seem a bit tougher, and the demands a bit greater; don’t lose faith. We are in the fourth year. We are coming up hard against the final showdown, the final game of history and God knows who His champions are going to be. Right now He is doubling His efforts on us. He knows the deceptive plays of the enemy that will throw lesser team mates off guard. He knows that some will even fall away from the game to play for the opposing team.

                But if we will stick with the Coach and His training, He will lead us through to victory.

                “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:29-31

                “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:5b-7, 14.