God makes choices concerning our lives.
This is reflected in many ways and in many passages, such as,
“Only,
as the Lord has distributed to each man, as God has called each, so
let him walk. So I command in all the assemblies.”
1Cor 7:17 WEB
God gives one man, one job, and another man another job. Our tasks and locations are not accidental. We should do the best we can with whatever God has given us to do.
Then of course Jesus specifically says.
“You
didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you,
that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain;
that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it
to you.”
Jn 15:16 WEB
He is saying, quite contrary to many of our instincts, especially in modern day America, that HE does the choosing, and further that these things have an impact on our behavior, and our reception.
“If
you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you
are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.”
Jn 15:19 WEB
And God has a definite
perspective on who
pleases or displeases Him.
“27
but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might
put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the
world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 28
and God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things
that are despised, and the things that are not, that he might bring
to nothing the things that are: ”
1Cor 1:27-28 WEB
Or again, listen to the apostle James.
“Listen,
my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor
in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which
he promised to those who love him?”
Jas 2:5 WEB
And pride and arrogance God hates.
“Likewise,
you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you gird
yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another; for
“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
1Pe 5:5 WEB
So now we know a little better, how to appeal to God.
One day God will decide, will
choose, that the
Great prostitute, Babylon the Great, the
great
the religio-economic-political
power of our age … should be
destroyed for her sins.
And God will assign one of His great enemies, the beast and ten kings to that task. He can do that at His will.
“For
God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to
be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the
words of God should be accomplished.”
Rev 17:17 WEB
God can put ideas into the heads of even those who hate Him, and arrange it so that they serve His purposes.
It is important to read and study what God says, even in prophecy.
WEB
is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the
original ASV American Standard Version 1901