There is balance between the theories of predestination and freewill. I am firmly in the freewill camp, yet must be tempered with concepts from the predestination camp. Consider the following:
Joseph said to his brothers, “You decided to do evil to me, but God used it for good.” God had decided that Abraham's seed would go into Egypt and grow there. Joseph's brothers, on their own jealous volition, decided to murder Joseph and instead sold him into slavery. Although their freewill choice was for evil by God's sovereignty the results of it turned out for good - - God's good, Joseph's good, even the brothers' good.
To say God made Joseph's brothers to decide to do murder is to say God made these men do something which is against the God's design for mankind's morality: “Thou shalt not kill.” The brothers chose to do the evil; God did not force them to do evil. God did not create the brothers intending them to do evil; his intention was they should do good.
God (who by definition is good) converted the evil actions into good. God, being in existence at all times (that is: existing in the future to us who are captured only in the present) knew before the bad happened that it was going to happen, and that the happening of it would turn out for the good.
We should not be afraid to make choices, or be made to think that our choices have no real meaning or effect because of the theory that God hard-wired the choices before we were created (as some who are hard-over on the predestination theory would say). Because, as Joseph's brothers, we have options before us that we can choose. But we should also know that God has all firmly in his control and in the end his will will work out for good. And if God has all in control, we can see he will be more than willing to give us the power to accomplish his will.
If Joseph's brothers could choose evil than so can we. But we can choose to do good. Sometimes we are going to be in a place where we will have to choose - - we will not have the luxury of passing the choice by.
