If I Am Predestinated, Why Must I Still Strive?
1) Direct Answer
Yes, you must strive. Predestination is not a license to drift; it is God’s purpose that you be holy, overcome, and walk in obedience. The very proof of predestination is that you press on.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says we were “chosen…that we should be holy” (Ephesians 1:4) and “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29). That calls for a life, not laziness.
- “Make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). If election were a reason to coast, the Scripture would not tell you to confirm it by diligence.
- “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you” (Philippians 2:12-13). His work in you makes you work it out.
- Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). The predestinated sheep are marked by following.
- “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24). The narrow way is not careless—it’s earnest.
- “Follow peace… and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
- Grace “teaches us… to deny ungodliness” and to live soberly and godly (Titus 2:11-12).
- “Shall we continue in sin…? God forbid” (Romans 6:1-2). Real grace never excuses sin.
- The overcomer promises are to those who overcome, not to the indifferent (Revelation 2–3).
- The Bride is shown as those who came through and overcame—washed, faithful, serving, reigning (Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 20:4). That is a life of victory, not apathy.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Predestination sets the end, and God also ordains the means to that end. He ordained repentance, faith, obedience, holiness, prayer, suffering, correction, and perseverance as the pathway of the elect. The same God who wrote your name also writes your walk.
- You don’t strive to become the elect; you strive because the elect Seed is in you. Life presses. A lamb nature follows the Shepherd; a holy calling produces a holy living.
- If someone says, “If I’m predestinated, I can live as I please,” ask: Where is the fear of God? Where is the chastening that God gives sons? (Hebrews 12:6-8). Where is the following of the Voice? (John 10:27). The foundation of God stands sure—“Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19).
- Faith without works is dead (James 2:17). Works don’t save, but they show the life that does.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Election gives assurance, not apathy. The Bride is ordained to overcome; therefore she strives. The Seed in you makes you walk, war, and win.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Things that are to be
65-1205 §95
...d are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness." There's something in us. You raised your hand awhile ago: "I want more of God." See, there's something needy. And if you love the world (and going that way), the things of the world, the world's travel you'll go, and in the fall you'll be. See? Come out! You're sons and daughters of a king---the King. Be lady and gentlemen. Walk like Christians; live like Christians; act like Christians. Remember, I'll meet you at the judgment bar with these remarks. See? L...
A thinking man's filter
65-0822E §60
Think. Just think of it a minute. A woman speaking in tongues with bobbed hair and lipstick on, and then the church still holds to it that that's the evidence of the Holy Ghost. Or a preacher from a seminary or some Bible school using the trinitarian baptism or compromising with the Word to some creed or denomination. Is that a thinking man's filter? Not the way I see it, brother. It's a foolish man drawing through that. Right. Could you imagine that? Instead of using God's Word as a filter for his soul, letting th...
Divine Healing
54-1219M §2
...go to the next hole and cast in, maybe get a whole bunch of fish in that one, see. Then, after a while, see, we just go and throw our net in, that's all, see. The Lord has predestinated us to preach the Gospel, predestinated them who will hear it to eternal life. Now, we've got to throw the net, that's right, see, whatever the Lord's is. Here they all laying around the altar, "Now, Lord, there they are. I done my best. Here is the Gospel net, got them every one caught. You know what is fish. And You know what is t...
Hebrews, Chapter 1
57-0821 §30
...e Wesley Methodist; and Nazarenes; Pilgrim Holiness; and on down to the last is Pentecostal. All organized! And the Bible plainly teaches that the Catholic church is a ill-famed woman, and the Protestant churches and their organizations are her daughters---Revelation 17. That's exactly right. So they... Not the people now... There's good in all them churches (sainted, saved people). But God doesn't call His people by an organization. He calls them as individuals. God deals with individuals, whether you're a Methodi...
The unfailing realities of the living God
60-0626 §96
...in the Bible, that they taken from the body of Saint Paul, handkerchiefs and aprons; and unclean spirits went out of people and--and diseases were healed. The people today still see the same God. Now, we know we're not Saint Paul, but You're still Jesus. And it wasn't Saint Paul; it was Saint Paul's surrendered life to Jesus Christ. The Lord wrought special miracles, not Paul, the Lord. Now, Father God, we believe that we don't know one thing, a lot of times criticized; washing feet, baptizing in Jesus Christ's Na...