God wants children not puppets

God just blows my mind sometimes with the simple ways he explains things to me when I least expect it.  I was just thinking about the children that I am working with at my church and how important it is for them to learn that they can do things for God and their world when God told me that everyone works for God.  Children, adults, believers, and atheists.  God created us all and we are all here for a purpose which is going to be fulfilled.  The difference between choosing to accept the Lord into our lives and not is the difference between Gepetto having a puppet or a son in the story of Pinocchio.  If we reject God he uses the strings to cause us to move in certain directions to fulfill our purpose, but we get no lasting connection with God.  Even worse, we hand ourselves over to Satan and he plays with us. There is no relationship foundation required for puppetry, but to any of us who believes on Jesus the son of God and his death and resurrection for our sins we become real children of God.  He doesn't simply pull strings any more because he can talk to us to tell us what we need to do, and sometimes he even tells us why.   God gives his children the opportunity to learn the steps of the show with his loving guidance.  He desires to develop a relationship with each of us that lasts forever rather than put on a puppet show that ends in him having his beautiful masterpieces self-destruct. 

It always annoys me when people talk about Christians being gullible and mindless.   It is our acceptance of our creator that allows us the freedom to move.  In his grace, he removes our strings and takes our hand.  God moves with us not just on us.  To anyone who thinks that God doesn't already know every decision you will ever make, he wouldn't have made you if you weren't in his plan.  There is nothing that any of us has done that caught him by surprise or worried him.  God feels for us and for himself, but surprise, or shock are not in his emotional register because he knows the whole story already.  God wins and everyone who is with him.  Satan loses and everyone who is with him.  We are a part of the story, but we can't change it.  God wrote us in just the way that we are, and even those of us who don't know him play our part perfectly.  He knows every choice that we will make, and he allows us to play out our part anyway.  God allows us to fulfill our destiny whether we choose him or not.  The Bible says that gifts and calling come without repentance, but eternity with God requires it.  Choose ye this day whom you will serve.  None of us can serve both God and Ourselves.  I say ourselves instead of Satan because rejecting God is about satisfying ourselves, and the reason many of us turn away from God is because we are tricked into thinking our own plans for our lives are better than God's for us.  Our intent is to serve ourselves, but we end up in slavery to sin.  Thank God for Jesus who died to purchase us back from Satan and an eternity away from anything good.   I am glad that in the end I am with God where everything is good.