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Michael1967 said:
My wife is struggling with the doctrine of predestination based on God's sovereign election of individuals. She is overwhelmed by the feeling it is fatalism. The heart of her concern is what good does it do for her to pray for our children to be saved if they are not chosen by God from before the foundation of the world. What solace can I offer her from scripture?
There are lots of great articles that deal specifically with your question above which J_Edwards provided you. But a quick answer to your question would be that God ordains the means as well as the end. In other words, God has predestined a set number of Adam's fallen race to be redeemed in Christ (the end). And, He has likewise ordained the preaching of the Word, the prayers of the saints, the sacraments, etc., to accomplish that end (the means). This is not to say that all nor any of the means are sufficient in and of themselves to bring about the salvation of someone, for it is the will of God efficaciously applied by the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the means which accomplishes that salvation.

In His Grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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