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.
As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee
60-0911M §28
Moab had a false prophet, a bishop by the name of Balaam, who come down and got amongst the congregation to try to get them to organize and all come together, because they were brethren. But they were not! They were half-brothers, not real brothers! If in your heart... "Don't disagree with him; just go ahead, leave him alone. Pay them for what you get, if you have to pass through his country." He was predestinated to be that. If God would've expected or predestinated Moab to join up with Israel, they'd have joined...
A Super Sign
62-0708 §54
And today, if that light of God, that Holy Spirit, ever strikes a predestinated seed, whose name was put on the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world! The Bible says that. That's right. The light will shine! You can preach to some, and it seems like it's just like water on a duck's back, falls off. But let it once strike that seed, and watch what happens quickly, something is there right now! Why? It's predestinated seed coming forth. It's got to come. And when that light, the gospel, strikes it, t...
The Spoken Word is the original seed
62-0318 §115
All right. Predestinated as he was, makes the Word seed the same water on what? This church today is a bride predestinated? Did God say He would have a bride without spot or wrinkle? Then it's predestinated, isn't it, see. Well, Christ was predestinated. He was a royal seed of Abraham, and what did it do? When the Spirit come on Christ, He bore record of the Word of God, and when the water, Spirit, falls on the Word seed, the royal seed of Abraham's faith in God's Word will produce the same kind of a crop. Say, "I...
Adoption, part 2: Manifested sons of God
60-0518 §67
Now, remember, God predestinated you, by foreknowledge, that you were coming to this. Everybody understand it, raise your hand. God, by foreknowledge, predestinated you to come to the promised land. What is the promised land for the Christian today? Just raise up your hand if you know. "The promise is unto you and to your children, and to them that are afar off." "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters." And in Isaiah 28:...
Proving His Word
64-0816 §106
...es forms an image unto the beast, just exactly what we just put in the book there the other day. Notice, it forms that, see, the antichrist. And the Bible said, "All whose names were not written on the Lamb's book of Life," (When, at the revival?) " slain before the foundation of the world" (your name was put on there), this antichrist will deceive you." Matthew 24:24, says that "The antichrist would be so close like the real thing in the last days, it would deceive the very elected, or predestinated..." It's the s...