I was in the office when I overheard a conversation about faith taking place. A lady expressed her frustration with having free will. “If there was one true God, why would he create people who would choose not to love Him? What a valid question.
As I locked in student attendance, I marveled at this question because it’s just something I’ve never really taken the time to think about. How would I answer this if someone posed this question to me?
“Is it true love if it’s forced?”
Well my first thought was, thank God we have free will. If we didn’t then we’d all be destined for the same place and for the same thing. Forced to love our creator. No mind to think, no ability to make our own decisions. While I would love for all people to come to know Jesus and to love Him with all their heart, mind, and soul. I thank God that He is a Father that didn’t force me to love Him. Could you imagine waking up and having your parents bring in a wedding dress, tell you to get up, put on the dress, and to marry the guy next door? A man you didn’t even know. How would you feel? How would the guy next door feel? Is it true love if it’s forced? Absolutely not.
“True love for God is birthed out of circumstances that we face and it brings a richness to our relationship with God that an obligatory love could never amount to.”
Don’t you think that is what makes God so good? He wanted us to be able to grow spiritually and morally. Not to drop us off in a utopian world where we would operate as robots, living predictable lives. Could we even really feel raw emotion without free will? Would we be able to have deep, meaningful relationships with our family or friends, let alone God? If struggle didn’t exist there would be no taste to my relationship with God. True love for God is birthed out of circumstances that we face, and it brings a richness to our relationship with God that an obligatory love could never amount to. How would we truly know God as healer, as the deliverer, as Lord, as Savior? Life is hard, but what makes it worth it is going through WITH God. And from that place discovering so much more about Him. Life would fail to mean anything to us. A life without free will would indicate that its maker is selfish, lacking creativity. That doesn’t line up with who He is at all. I serve a God that created all things and called it good. A God who would think to place stars that dance in the sky, a moon to give us light in the dark of the night, and a sun for our skin to feel warmth in the cool of day. He is a God who gave us minds that can retain information and hearts to love others as ourselves. He doesn’t fall short in the area of creativity. Creativity literally flows through and from Him. Creation is a tangible display of His glory. He is beautiful, and very much like us, wants to be loved without condition.
Even if others choose not to, we were made for Him and to love Him. Isn’t this just breathtaking? I get goosebumps just thinking about the chance to partake in communion with the creator of all that I see everyday. The gift is that communion wasn’t just reserved for a set group of people but for any person who chose to open this beautifully wrapped package. When He made the Heavens and the Earth, He made it thinking specifically of you and I. Your love should spill over at the thought of how much Jesus cares for you.
You might be just starting your journey and may wonder how can I love the Lord? In the New Testament a pharisee, to test Jesus, asked Him what the greatest commandment was. Jesus replied saying,
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
Love Him. Consider Him. Trust Him. Surrender all to Him. Desire the will of the Lord above your own. Meditate on the scriptures day and night to know the depths in which He loves you because friend, it is deeper than you may realize. Although some may opt out, the point of creation is to love Him with all that is in us.
