While our choices are ¹free and 100% ours (i.e. we freely choose to do whatever we want) our ³wills are not. Our wills are tied to our desires.
To say it another way, our "chooser" is not broken but our "wanter" is.
²And our wants (desires) dictate what we ¹choose to pursue.
If we desire (want) the wrong things we we choose to pursue the wrong things.
And our desires are tied to what we value. The more we value something, the more we desire it and the harder we pursue it.
And we value only what we ⁴see as valuable.
If ⁴we are blind to seeing God's true value, worth, beauty, wisdom, glory, majesty, and power as our infinite loving Creator - the Source of life, love, and all things - we will never pursue Him as the infinitely valuable and significant being that He is. We will desire and pursue created things and beings instead.
Why? ⁵We are like God and created to enjoy Him who is most valuable, beautiful, intelligent, glorious, majestic, and loving. Absent a relationship with Him - the Source of life, love, and all things - we go after the next best thing... His creation. Particularly other image bearers (you and I) who by design are most like God and have the greatest capacity to love and reflect him most when in union with Him through Christ.
Does our feeling significant, important, or valuable matter? If so, why?
Because God is significant, important, and valuable, we are must be like Him in order to be able to appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him.
We are told in Jas 4:
[5] "...Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”"?
What kind of spirit has God put within us? A spirit that longs (is passionate) for infinite love i.e. God Himself. Love that can only be satisfied fully by the Source of love - our Creator.
He will not share in (is jealous over) our pursuit or loyalty to any other "lover" because He knows there is no other true lover who can fill this need and desire for love that He designed to be filled only by Him.
Not because He needs our love but because we need His. This wasn't happenstance. He designed us this way. He is the Creator, we are created...but unlike the rest of creation we are created in His image. Therefore He loves us and desires we experience Him to the maximum of our capacity as bearers of His image.
Everything we seek for life outside of God is temporary and comes up short. GOD alone is the Source of infinite love. To experience His love to the maximum of our capacity, we must give Him all our loyalty and faithfulness. Otherwise we will never experience His love as we were designed to, but instead we will pursue love outside of Him.
Where does this need/desire for significance (glory) come from? Click here.
For a discussion on the necessity of choice click here.
For a further discussion on how our "wanter" is broken and not our "chooser" click here.
For a discussion on ability vs responsibility click here
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¹And our chooses are ours alone. No one else's, including God. Therefore we are fully accountable for what we value and chose to pursue.
²Note the progression of the "ands" above. Each deals with a significant shift, but also a vital connection to the previous and following "and" statement. To get to the 2nd "and" you must acknowledge the 1st. And to get to the 3rd we must see the 2nd.
³Is God free to do whatever he wants? 100%! But since God is holy He only wants (desires-wills) and freely choses righteousness i.e. His character or nature dictates His will/desires.
For a fuller discussion click here.
⁴To see truly, the Spirit of God must reside in us. And that only occurs after we've been "born again" i.e. after we are spiritually regenerated.
"Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (1st) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” " John 3:30
Before we are born again we are blind to spiritual things - i.e. things pertaining to God's kingdom. The Bible says we are dead to God. Last I checked dead people don't see very well 😉!
⁵Why does our feeling and desire for significance, importance, and value matter?
We are like God who is significant, important, or valuable. We must be like Him so we can appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him.
