When you look in the mirror who do you see - Your image staring back at you, A Nubian queen, or a handsome king?  All of the above answers are correct, but the answer I am searching for abides within you, because that will determine who's shaping your life.  For instance, is it you, society, or the Holy Spirit? The Prophet Jeremiah said that the Lord knew him before he was in his mother's womb [Jeremiah 1:5]. Based on Jeremiah's statement, the Lord should be shaping your lives.  That is, you should be looking to the Lord in everything you do, because He knows what purpose you are to serve on earth.  However, the Lord has granted us freewill, but it doesn't mean we are the captains of our lives.  That is, “Our lives are not our own.  We are not able to plan our own course [Jeremiah 10:23, NLT].  Remember the story of David and Bathsheba - David committed adultery then had Uriah killed to cover up his adulterous act (2 Samuel 11).  As a result of exercising his freewill, lives were destroyed (2 Samuel 12:1-18).

Is it you?  If God is the creator and we are the creations, what do we know?  The Prophet Isaiah said it best "You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed [creations] say to him [Creator] who formed [creatures], "He did not make me"?  Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? (Isaiah 29:16- NIV).  Are we foolish to think that we are shaping our own lives? [Proverbs 20:24]. Freewill can be self-destructive when it is misguided by your education and or money.  The Word declares, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and loses his own soul [Mark 8:36]. 

Is it society?  The values and morals of the world are perverted by lust, pride, and greed (1 John 2:16).  For instance, you cannot watch television, read a magazine, or see an advertisement without having nudity, sex scenes or same-sex partners. It has also become commonplace to hear profanity in primetime sitcoms and cartoons. Society leads us to believe that we all should be thin, shacking is no big deal, same sex-marriage is a civil right, and disciplining your children can be a crime.  What I say to these things "THE DEVIL IS A LIAR."  As God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, so shall He destroy the wicked of today (Genesis 18:20-33; 19:13). 

Is it God?  If God, the Creator, knows the plan He has for our lives [Jeremiah 29:11] that should tell us something.  The Word of God declares: (1) Trust in the Lord and lean not to your own understanding and He'll direct your path [Proverbs 3:5-6].  (2) Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all things shall be added unto you [Matthew 6:33], and (3) "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delights in his way" [Psalm 37:23].  Most importantly, when Jesus went back to be with the Father, he sent us a Comforter [Holy Spirit], who abides in us [1 John 4:4] that we may do that which glorifies God the Father [Psalm 66:2].

 
Word Up!  It is not you or society that should be shaping your live but God the Father. God desires the best for us that when Jesus’ work was finished on earth he sent the Holy Spirit to abide that we may live a righteous life.  Although freewill gives us our independence, if we’ll not prayed up, the consequences can be devastating.  For, the world would have us to believe that any and everything is morally acceptable.  Listen, God's Word is not a suggestion but a commandment.  Therefore, God's ways are perfect and those whose lives He is shaping shall not live in vain (Psalm 127:1).

Copyright © 2011 by Marilyn C. Franklin, Word Up! eNewsletter and aSister's World Publication.  All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher.