Choose or Lose

(Pro 3:11 KJV)  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:

God is sovereign.  All Christians agree on that.  The largest branches of Protestant Christianity take that to mean that God has pre-picked who will be saved and who will be condemned.  Some go so far as to reject free will altogether.  This is one of those passages that make it hard for me to accept that thinking.  Everywhere I turn in scripture I find references to free will.  Here it is again.  If God is sovereign the way the Reformed theologians teach, how can a person “despise” (reject NASB) (3988a) anything He offers, even His “chastening” (discipline NASB) (4148)?  If it is preordained that you reject it, why tell you not to?

I hope it is just a semantic difference.  I would not declare heretic over the issue, although I am not sure they return the favor.  I do not want to make choices that would in any way say “no” to God.

So?  Listen, think, act.  Do it because it is preordained or do it because you choose, but do it.  Eternity hangs in the balance.