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.
Convinced and then concerned
62-1125M §71
Fall of the year, the seeds die and go back into the dirt. But let that sun just strike it. If the germ of life is there, it'll spring to life. This woman in her horrible estate, she was predestinated. Her name was put on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. And when she seen that light of God spring, nothing could hold her. It sprung to life, when educated priests... They said, "Well, that's holy Father So-and-so." JOHN8:44 I don't care what it was. Jesus said, "You're of your father the dev...
Christ is the mystery of God revealed
63-0728 §162
...Ghost not pointed out. See how God hides His mystery to the high educated and everything? Look, every one of them people saying ... and simplicity reveals it to whom He has predestinated to see it. Look at there. Others standing by and never even seen the dove. They never heard no voice. For it was only sent to that predestinated seed. "Predestinated?" Certainly was predestinated. Why, Isaiah, 712 years before he was born, in the Spirit raised up out of these human senses and said, "There's voice of one crying in t...
Trying to do God a service without it being God's will
65-1127B §59
That's sovereign! That's what God does. And He alone has a right to send a revival. Not get the mechanics together; it's pray for God to send the dynamics. He only reveals His Word in the predestinated. Now, when I use the word predestinate... Now, it's a bad word to use in public, especially when we have mixed crowds between the Armenians and the Calvinists. And I've asked you not to think I know it all, but they're both wrong according to the Scripture. Grace is what God did for me, works is what I do for Him. Se...
Adoption, part 3: Position in Christ
60-0522M §31
Therefore now, God sits... He's already manifested Himself, He's God. He's already manifested Himself as a saviour. Man was lost and He saved him. He's already manifested Himself as a healer. Don't make any difference what people say He isn't; He is, anyhow, just the same. He's a healer, He's a saviour, He's God, He's eternal. And He has a purpose. And his purpose was in the beginning to make creatures that would love Him and worship Him. And He made creatures, and creatures fell. And then God, by his infinity, loo...
Hearing, recognizing, acting on the Word of God
60-0221 §59
See how it is? They do it. They're predestinated. They might impersonate, and be just as sweet and humble, just as close, like Christians, so close that it would deceive the very elect; but by their fruits you shall know them. A woman with shorts on never looked like a Christian to me. The Bible said it's a sinful and a shameful thing for a woman to cut her hair. Only one woman in the Bible ever painted her face---was Jezebel. How about men, you men that's supposed to be Christian men, and let your wives do that? w...