We all know that we live in a free country. Little kids like to remind us of this when you tell them not to scream in your ear or something like that. "It's a free country!" Well next time remind them that you are not free to kill, have excessive amounts of yard sales, lie in court or run stop signs. Well, they might not care, but freedom is always accompanied by limitations. I know that sounds like a contradiction. Think about it though, if everyone could do what they wanted there would be no freedom. Limits are in place becuase people are prone to be selfish and careless and their freedom takes away the freedom of others. If there were no stop signs, people would be much more inconvenienced as they constantly slammed on their brakes and repared their damaged fenders.

There is a teaching in scripture that teaches that God has predestined the lives of people. Some people have a huge issue with this idea, because they believe that freedom is an important teaching in scripture. The truth is that both are important. Christ has made us free from the law that leads to sin and allows us to freely love Him, but He hasn't given us an all access pass to run our lives. That wouldn't have done us or anyone else any good. The word that we translate as pre-destination means "to set limitations" in greek. God has set boundaries for us, these include the times when we are born and die, our ability of have faith in God, the people that come into our lives, and so much more. It can seem like God is too controlling for doing this, but the truth is that He alone knows what is best for us and what needs to be done for His perfect plan to play out correctly. Take a look around at the situations in your school and every day life. There are so many limitations set in place by imperfect people that serve us for our good. This is just a shadow of the way that God rules over all things and sets boundaries so that we can be truly free.

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