Lamentations 3:37-39

Who can speak and have it happen,
if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both calamities and good things come?
Why should any living man complain
when punished for his sins?

All things are from the Lord. When you are taking out a loan for your first home; When you are finishing up the last payment on that mortgage; When you get that new iPhone; When you land that job you've been waiting for; All things are from the Lord. Conversely, times when you have little; times when you lose what you thought was yours; times when relationships are strained; All things are from the Lord.

What does this mean? Is God responsible for all of life's decisions or is God a Father who lets His children decide their own way?

Yes.

God is both providential and overseer. Who can speak and have it happen, if the Lord has not decreed it? This indicates that God is not always solely responsible for the content of our conversations, but we can have them only if He allows, and even commands, it. God is in control, and nothing comes from ourselves, but instead from what God gives us. So how does this lead to the question of discipline and Man's response to punishment for sin?

If we are not careful, we begin to see our righteous deeds as exactly that: our righteous deeds. We believe God is using us, but we think it is because we are the most valuable player. We tend to attribute to God the glory, but ourselves the benefit. This results in confusion when things start to fall apart. "God, did not I speak well of Your Name?" "God, did not I work hard for so many years to build this church for You? Why then are you now tearing it apart?" "God, did not I parent my children to fear You?" When the benefits begin to fall, our true hearts are revealed. We may have said that it was God who worked in us, but did we really attribute it to His alone?

God may we be a people who understand that all things are from You. That, if not decreed otherwise from You, our sins would overtake us. For we are not able to lift the weight of the world, we are not able to lift the burden of our sin, we are not able to lift the crop from the seed. All things are in Your hands, and we submit ourselves to You, despite the outcome.