Quotes from Jerry Bridges

But rather that He works in His mysterious way through their wills to accomplish His purposes.

Do you need the good favor of a certain professor in order to get a good recommendation for a job? If that job is God's plan for you, God is able to and will move in the heart of that professor to give you a good recommendation.

Though the absolute sovereignty of God over our lives is consistently taught throughout Scripture, it is not the uncaring sovereignty of a despot but of a God who is just as loving and caring as He is sovereign. But we have to by faith believe that truth when His ways are different from that which we desire.

George MacDonald: "I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of. For to have been thought about—born in God's thoughts—and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, most precious thing in all thinking.

Your promotion, or lack of it, is in the hand of God. Your superiors are simply His agents to carry out His will.

As we do so, it will be helpful to keep in mind that the biblical writers never seemed to be aware of the problem, except for one statement by Paul in Romans 9:19-21. And Paul's statement seems to raise

Make His purpose your purpose.

So while the Bible asserts both God's sovereignty and people's freedom and moral responsibility, it never attempts to explain their relationship.

The first is that God is infinite in His ways as well as His being.

How futile and even arrogant for us to seek to determine what God is doing in a particular event or circumstance.

The relationship of the sovereign will of God to the freedom and moral responsibility of people is one of those mysteries.

It does no good to nail an unattached branch to the vine; there is no life-giving connection. But those branches that are an integral part of the vine share in the life of the vine.