Choices

Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

I was thinking a few days ago how people tend to blame God when things go wrong in the world or when things go wrong within their own lives. And I was led to the verse listed above, that basically explains that God had/has plans for us, from before our conception He had plans. His plans were and are for good, they are not intended to cause us trouble or to make us stumble. His plans provide us with a future and a hope; they do not lead us down a destructive path that cuts our life short or puts us in despair.

So what causes the bad things that happen in life to happen? The choices that we make. People always say that throughout life, everything is met with a choice, and it's true. You wake up and there are so many choices already laid out infront of you; do you get out of bed or stay in bed, do you shower or not, do you go to work/school or just stay at home, and the list goes on until the choice is to go to sleep or to stay awake. And the cycle continues. One can see how these choices can lead to "bad" events; if one refuses to go to work, he/she might get laid off and a whole ripple effect could come from that.

Sometimes our choices affect only us, and other times, they could be damaging or hurtful to other people. Many times, those are the choices that have people turn and cry out "Why?" to God. We can think of many examples I'm sure; the World Wars, terrorism, adultery, revenge, etc. However, we must bear in mind that God is not to be blamed for these events. Yes, He is all-knowing and yes, He certainly has the power to stop anything horrible from happening but He has given us human beings free will to do and act as we please and so in many ways, the responsibility lies on us. It's like a parent-child relationship; a parent may have plans for their child to become a doctor or a lawyer or something they feel is "good" for their child, but in the end, it's the child who decides what path his/her life is going to take. If he/she disobeys the parents, gets involved in a dangerous or unhealthy lifestyle and unfortunately reaps bad results, are the parents really to blame?

The prodigal son (Luke 15) had a similar situation, where he left his father to go off on his own and live the life he wanted. He eventually hit very very hard times and realized that he had been wrong and went to his father, took responsibility for his actions and asked to be forgiven. How amazing is it that our Heavenly Father will do the same if we just admit that we were wrong, take responsibility for our wrong/bad actions (sin) and come to Him for forgiveness. And He is able to continue to have great plans for us if we only trust in Him and surrender ourselves to Him. He wants what's best for us and He knows what's best for us so He is able to provide for us the things that we need.