The Dangerous Way of Love

Romans 1:18-23 NKJV  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Dear God,

Thank You for my free will.  Thank You for the power of volition.  Thank You for the incredible lengths to which You went to grant me choice.  You created a human race with free will.  The inevitability of sinful rebellion was obvious.  Yet, You created us with the power to choose. 

Your creative act to grant humanity the power to choose, had the most profound consequences for You.  Humanity would become spiritually lost, morally depraved, and relationally deprived of intimacy with You.  You made a choice to declare Your own Son to be the Savior of the world, and You did so before You even whispered the first creative Word.

You spoke to Moses, "... I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days..." (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

"The tremendous truth of Christianity is that the coercion of God is not of force but of love. It is precisely there that we can glimpse the sorrow of God. It is always love's greatest tragedy to look upon some loved one who has taken the wrong way and to see what might have been, what could have been and what was meant to have been" (William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, 1953, p. 90).

G.K. Chesterton wrote, "God had written not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play He had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage managers, who had since made a great mess of it."

Lord God, grant me the courage to choose well.  Help me to subordinate all of my choices to Your will.  Most often, humanity gets off track with priorities, friendships, education, career, and romantic relationships that are oppose or compete against Your will.  Help me to keep my body, my mind, and my emotions surrendered to Your Lordship so that I love what Your love.  Help me to use my love, my mind, my body, my passions, and my desires to advance that which honors and pleases You.

Barclay exclaimed, "God save us from making shipwreck of life and bringing heartbreak to Himself by using our freewill to frustrate his purposes... Men may misuse their freewill to frustrate God's purposes; men in their perversity may be blind and deaf to all His appeal. Had God used the force of coercion and laid on man the iron bonds of a will that could not be denied, there would have been a world of automata and a world without trouble. But God chose the dangerous way of love, and love in the end will triumph" (Ibid, p. 91).

I am not automata.  Form my will through Your Word.  Form my thoughts through conversations with You.  Form my character through minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades, and a life lived in communion with You.  From the depths of intimate relationship, Creator with created, teach me to serve You with the worship of volition.  I choose the "dangerous way of love."

I love You, I need You.  I was made by You, for You, and am only complete in You.

Amen.