From The Crucible (by Pastor Linda Pugsley)

In John 15:5, God tells us that apart from Him, you can do nothing. A lot of people look at that and mock and scoff because the truth is they have accomplished many things without God. Duh—God wasn’t talking about earthly accomplishments. God is saying that apart from Him, you can do nothing of eternal value.

Now, God could have just made us like robots without a free will; with His power just dangling us like puppets to obey Him, but that would negate His purpose for His creation…to be His loving children. Our great God made us to be His sons not His slaves! We are not a bunch of toy soldiers for Him to play with. How much easier for God to have a docile, robotic following, but in that scenario there would be no exchange of love. Because God is perfect love, He could never set up a scenario without it!

No, God’s perfection in everything He is required that He give us a free will; for obedience is the only way to show God that you love Him. Adam had the same principle of free will to obey God or not. His disobedience brought the death and separation from God of which God had warned. Thus, Adam’s disobedience ultimately changed him and we all were born with Adam’s defective nature instead of the perfect nature God had first established.

Thankfully, God’s love does not leave us doomed to death but, through Jesus Christ, has opened the opportunity to have the very Spirit of God dwell within us again, enabling us to possess the level of obedience needed to obey God. So, rely on God and not your own strength. Use the freedom He gave you to choose for Him not against Him and build toward your eternal existence not just your earthly one. Endure the fire...it's producing pure gold!

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