7. Freedom means God doesn't always get what He wants.
I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. {Revelation 3:20}
If God has made us in freedom, for freedom, and if our connection to Him is truly a two-way street, then freedom means God doesn’t always get what He wants. Because God loves us with an everlasting love, and what He wants is to be with us and enjoy our company forever. This is the unquenchable desire of His heart, but for love to flourish between two people, each party must consent freely to the relationship.
That’s why God gave us freedom in the first place—to create the opportunity for love, the opportunity for us to choose Him, too. But the same freedom that is given in order that we might choose God freely may also be used to reject Him. When that happens, God’s hopes and dreams for a relationship with us will ultimately go unrealized. Though He will never stop loving us, at some point, the possibility of enjoying that relationship will be gone.
Freedom means that we have the power to close the door to God and keep it closed. Freedom means that we don’t have to respond favorably to God’s knocking. Freedom means that we will not be compelled to listen or obey or have anything more to do with God. And that’s why freedom means that God doesn’t always get what He wants.
If you want to dig deeper—
1 Kings 18:21
Ezekiel 18:30-32
Hosea 11:8
Revelation 3:20