Is God really in charge of the universe? Do prophecies actually happen? Lots of interesting feedback this week, coming out of last week’s chat about prophecy, guidance and generally ‘hearing’ from God.
For some years now I’ve been thinking about our life as a collaboration with God, rather than God micro-managing everything. Christians, to me, often drift into a kind of fatalism, where everything is pre-ordained and planned. Such a concept of God seems to me to be more controlling than loving. I can’t subscribe to a view of God where he behaves like a controlling partner, who will punish us if we make a wrong decision, but won’t actually make it clear what the right decision is.
As one of our listeners wrote, love, by nature, has to be un-controlling and non-coercive. If we truly love someone, we have to seek their full flourishing, which means allowing them freedom to make their own choices.
Which is not to say that God doesn’t have a plan for us. He does. The plan is for us to be disciples, to become more Christlike every day. There is no plan B. So every day we can receive guidance from God, but most of our decisions will be defined not so much by what we decide, but whether we are moving in a Christward direction.
So, if God is love, God must love freedom. As the great theologian Saint Sting said, ‘If you love someone, set them free.’