We have free will – that’s obvious – but it’s like a bird in a cage. We can fly around and do anything we want inside the cage, but a bird is still a bird, and a cage is still a cage. Our free will is limited to the capacity of a human on planet Earth in the 21st century.

We don’t have free will to determine our parents, when or where we were born, our gender, height, aptitudes, or native intelligence. We don’t have free will to make ourselves more innately intelligent, better looking, of a different nationality, to live in a different century, or change our species.

We have what we might call “limited” free will, and it’s a good thing. Because God is not letting anyone’s free will overturn his good, great, and sovereign plan. In fact, Ephesians 1:11 tells us that God is working out EVERYTHING in conformity with the purpose of his will. Everything has a purpose. Nothing is random.

What we actually have is a type of free agency (like a salesman working a territory) – the freedom to use what has been given to us by God – the gift of life and all our attributes – for good or not good. It is such a humbling honor, privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to be one of God’s creatures. Today, let us choose wisely – because we do have free will to do that.