We all have preferences. God decides whether we act on them or not.
God is the cause of a) our preferences, ie we are bound in vanity and b) the preferences that we act on.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said to Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; but save his life. God is Responsible for the limit and boundary, cause and effect of everything we do and of everything that happens to us.
Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth: and he shall be held up: for God is able to make him stand. God is our maker.
Pro 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps. We are accountable, which brings to us, not to God, the consequences for our carnal condition. God is not carnal. God is responsible for making us accountable and carnal which is the Way God is making us.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. We cannot out run, out smart, escape or be God. We try to.
To learn the difference between accountability and Responsibility God leads us to understand His Responsibility. We begin to feel very thankful to God and most humbled in His Presence for all the efforts to be our own god that according to the carnal mind, is being accountable for nothing and responsible dictator delegator, for everything. God is not like us. We are to become like God through the experience of our carnal inability to be Him.
Our ways, frustrations, attempts and self will, we experience through our efforts to survive, compete and excel. into making ourselves above God. This is the Plan of God for us to experience. It is an experience of evil. As and when God makes us aware of His Sovereign Responsibility for everything and everyone, then we enter His rest in the relief, joy, gratitude, repentance and surprising peace that comes from realizing that we are accountable to God and to Him only. When we know that we are fully accountable to God then only may we begin to share the nature of God to become a sacrifice for Him as did Jesus Christ who willingly, without coercion from God, He elected to die and come to earth to be crucified.
For His great love the Son of God has for His Father, Jesus was notably the only one ever, who 's life could not be taken from Him. He laid down His life and His Father gave Him power to take it up again. We are being made into that image of Great Love and ability for Great Sacrifice. The reward? Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Patience and Endurance ~ Fruit of The Spirit of God...and that's not all....
Arc