A most wonderful blessing!

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord Lift up his countenance uponyou and give you peace.
                                                                              -Numbers 6:24-26 ESV

We believers are chosen by God before the foundations of the world. The only cost we are charged is to obey Him.  To be holy, for He is holy. We are to be different from those around us. We are not to conform to this world.

People make changes all the time to improve themselves, maybe even to improve peoples' lives in their communities and around the world.  Often these works meet with some success.  All too often, without the guidance of solid principles to guide the journey, people just drift from one cause to the next in pursuit of works conforming to the current worldly trend.  Does this bring us closer to God, to reap the blessing of that relationship?  No, for our righteousness is nothing more than filthy rags compared to that of He who created us.  Few have lived a life as dedicated to helping others as did Mother Teresa, but all her works did not bring her closer to God.

“I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul,” she wrote at one point. “I want God with all the power of my soul — and yet between us there is terrible separation.” On another occasion she wrote: “I feel just that terrible pain of loss, of God not wanting me, of God not being God, of God not really existing.”  -From FOX News

Remember, it is not enough to turn away from your old nature if you are not turning toward a new nature that only God can provide through Jesus Christ.  If you don't have that new nature, you may just be continually turning, spinning in circles never reaching where God wants you to be. 

It took many lessons over many generations for the Old Testament people of Israel but eventually they obeyed and they were blessed. 

Our God is sovereign!

But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good... - Genesis 50:19-20a

If we have complete free will, then God is not sovereign.  But the Bible gives example after example of God's sovereignty.  He created everything from nothing.  The Heavens declare his glory.  His creatures are subservient to Him and they obey.  As for our will, we have what God foreknew and foreordained.  He knows us and works through our desires, albeit whether they are for evil or good, to bring about His will.

Adam and Eve were free in the garden to exercise their will within the boundaries set by God.  I do not believe their desires were evil, but their actions did introduce sin into the world, and God had a plan.  He was not shocked by their actions.   Our saviour  came to this world at His father's appointed time after a long chain of events and people were brought to pass, and it started with jealousy (sin) over a coat, Joseph's coat, and his brothers selling him into slavery (evil).  In the end, their lives were blessed, but not before they did evil.

Think about how God's will, in his sovereignty, has guided your life.