This really spoke to me yesterday...

Title: He Could Not Because They Would Not
Author: Elisabeth Elliot
Source: A Lamp For My Feet by Elisabeth Elliot.
Web Page: http:www.backtothebible.org/devotions/


The other side of the coin of this amazing matter of cooperation with God is that there are things even God cannot do. He cannot because He has chosen to assign certain powers to his people. If they will not, his hands are tied.

"He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief"(Mt 13:58 AV).

"How often would I have gathered you . . . but ye would not"(Mt 23:37 AV}.

Some would argue that although it is proper to say that God will not and does not, it is not proper to say that He cannot. I would reply that given the terms of his relationship to us, the people He loved and called, He cannot force us, for He cannot deny Himself. To force us would be to deprive us of the freedom He granted when He made us, and thus to deny Himself.

Yet we pray, "Make me to do Thy will!" And so we should, for in that prayer we express our will to cooperate with Him.

"Our wills are ours to make them Thine." (Tennyson)



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