So What Determines Your Lot In Life?

Who You Are And Who You Become?

Common Sense Commentary: Of course God's plan and presence in our lives changes our individual lot in life, but we must yield our will to His will as Jesus did on the cross. He asked for deliverance when he prayed, "Let this cup pass from me ....", but he didn't stop there, or God would have removed Him from the cross and there would be no salvation for us. But Jesus continued His prayer "... nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."  Mt.26:39.  That was the flesh, and blood, Jesus (human) side of Jesus Christ praying, not the Christ (deity) side.

Even so, we also have a free will to submit to our God's perfect will for us, and we can follow our fleshly will or yield it to God's will.
Either way, the way we choose will, to a huge extent, determine our future "lot" in life.

And so it was with Abraham and his nephew, Lot. 

Terah was the father of two brothers, Abram and Haran. Abraham's brother Haran fathered Lot. Abraham was the father of both Ishmael and Isaac and thus both the Arabs and Jews. This, as a result of Abram's faulty decision to take his maidservant, Hagar, in a sexual relationship, and became the primary cause of constant conflict between Arabs and Jews for the next 3900 years right up to today. That one sin became the poisonous fruit which would agitate and create the "lot" in life of both the Arabs and Jews til the end of time.

Abraham's nephew, Lot, would also make bad choices which would determine his descendent's lot in life through centuries of conflict and suffering along with his Uncle Abram's  descendants. Lot's first decision may have been a good one when he chose to join himself with his successful Uncle Abram. But that union eventually became strained and they agreed to go their separate ways. Abraham was kind enough to let Lot choose between the less fertile north or the well-watered plains of the south. Of course, young Lot chose the better conditions of the south and moved his family into the convenient city of Sodom ... in the south. This selfish choice, of Lot,  increased his wealth but was the seed of much loss and suffering to his future lot in life and that of his heirs and his Uncle Abraham's. So, there, Lot and his family were, in a wicked city, with lots of personal wealth and lots of entertainment. That is when God sent two emissaries  ... (angels) to visit this man, who is called "just" in 2 Peter 2:7. This word is the Greek "dikaios" and means, "righteous". Well, how can Lot be called just or righteous? Simple. Eph. 2:8-9 makes it plain that "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph.2:8-9

No matter how many bad choices and bad decisions a true believer, like Lot, makes, and thus, complicates his lot in life, his soul is still just or justified and his righteousness is not in himself but in Christ. "...You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us ... our righteousness, holiness, and redemption." 1 Cor. 1:30.  Even so, Lot continued to make bad decisions. When the lustful homosexual mob demanded Lot to bring out the visiting angels of God to them,  Lot tried vainly to protect them ... whose help they did not need, and, instead, he offered the mob his two daughters, which that lustful, perverted mob did not want. Then, when warned of God to get out of that wicked city, Lot chose to stay.... with all his stuff. But God forcefully, but graciously, picked Lot and his family up and set them safely outside the city before He rained destruction upon it.

If Lot hadn't already messed up his lot in life enough, he allowed himself to be manipulated by his two sinful daughters, who got him drunk, had sex with him, and became the mothers of the Moabites, and Ammonites. These two incestuous tribes would later be worshipers of a host of pagan, false gods and cause God's people enormous suffering and trouble.... the lot in life of both pagans and believers .... caused by bad choices. Bad choices affect those who make them and those around them.

The fact is, we all, in many ways, determine our own lot in this life through the choices we make. This is in harmony with God's decree  in Gal.6:7 ... "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Side note: Interestingly, the Muslim Koran (bible) records Abram's nephew, Lot, as a "messenger and prophet sent from God" to teach monotheism to the Sodomites. Islam was later established as a monotheistic religion of one god, but the wrong one. They believe in "one God", but theirs is a false god, a false bible, a false prophet, a false religion, a false salvation, a false church, and a false heaven. Their lot in life is so determined .... unless they repent and believe on Christ as the only Savior ... not Mohammad. RB