How is it that you are in control of your own free will, but yet the Lord already knows what you are going to?

Answer 1

C.S. Lewis put forth a really good theory on this:

"But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call "tomorrow" is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call "today." All the days are "Now" for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday, He simply sees you doing them: because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not "foresee" you doing things tomorrow, He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already "Now" for Him."

Answer 2

If you think outside of the box for a bit, you can picture the entire universe as one whole loaf of bread with you standing in an impossible place outside of it. All times and all events would be visible to you. Which time and which events you see would depend on what angle you slice that loaf of bread. If you take spacetime as a whole, all things you will ever do have already played out and haven't played out yet. To keep it from being completely predictable, the element of quantum weirdness exists within the universe. Einstein, when confronted with the newly emerging quantum theories, said "God does not play dice with the universe." Einstein presently is considered to have been mistaken in this regard.

Answer 3

The only way to really reconcile this is if your free will doesn't matter. You've got a sinful nature, we all do, and no ability to choose God. So have at whatever God might "know you're going to do" and you stand just as condemned before the Lord. He has to choose us, that's the only valid way around questions like this.

Answer 4

The fact that He knows is a totally separate entity from our free will to choose. If you are a parent, you can easily see how it works on a much smaller scale. Do you not know whether your child would choose the M&Ms or the carrot? Of course you do, but your knowing that doesn't impose your thinking on the child to MAKE him choose the M&Ms. The choice is his. The familiarity with your child is yours. We are God's children and He knows us more intimately than we know our own selves. But His knowledge does not force our decisions or take away our free will to CHOOSE to love and follow Him - or not.

Answer 5

It works the same way as my being in control and yet my mother already knows what I'm going to do. Just because she knows doesn't mean that she's controlling my choices.

Answer 6

Because He is the Alhpa and Omega, He is all knowing, He is Omniscience, also sometimes known as being all-knowing, refers to God’s ability to know absolutely everything. Psalms;
“O LORD, Thou has searched me and know me. Thou hast known when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thoughts from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, O LORD, Thou dost know it all” (139:1-4).
God is All Knowing. He knows everything about you. You can not go anywhere with out Him knowing right where you are. You cannot hide from Him. He knows everyone of your thoughts. He knows your heart even better than you do. He knows every good and bad thing taking place in your life. He knows even the number of the hairs on your neighbor's head and every thing about everyone in your city, your state, your country and the world. Since He knows everything already and He is All Powerful why can't we absolutely trust Him? He knows how to make everything right and He has All the Power to turn every situation around into a blessing for you! Nothing is impossible with Him. Yet we can barely 'trust' Him. We might hope but we can't seem to really 'trust' Him and rely on Him alone. Why?



God is Always with us! He never, never, never leaves us. We are never, ever alone. He is with you and with the person on the other side of the world at the same time. He is God and He can be everywhere at once! You see, we don't really Know God. We can barely understand His Greatness and His Power. And we treat Him as though He is very far away and unreachable. He has promised to be with us in every need. All we have to do is call on His Name and He is there.



Sometimes it may seem like He is not there, but that is because God's ways are not our ways. His ways are so much better and higher. And we want Him to work and be on our level. But He has something so much better in mind. He wants to train us to understand His ways and yield to Him. He wants us to love Him and to obey Him. He can't work if we keep one foot in the world and barely live for Him. He would have to compromise with worldly ways.



Our All Powerful, All knowing, Ever Present God is for you! He is not against you! Jesus gave His life for you! He wants you to know aud experience an abundant life now. 'All things are possible - only Believe!'

Answer 7

If God created you I think He would know how you would chose to live and the decision you would make. He lets you decide even though He knows what you will do. For example you are holding a baby on your lap, in front of the baby you place a baby bottle of milk and a lettuce. You even being human would know that the baby would most likely reach for the milk. God who has all wisdom knows us even better.

Answer 8

Mine differs from many at this point. Human free will is not a gift of God, but something each of us must overcome. Here is why. Jesus wasn’t to happy with the idea of him being put to death. The human will part of him wanted the cup to pass from him, but he overcame free will with obedience to the mind of the Lord and said, “not mine, but Thine will be done.” Free will leads to temptation, and like the serpent said, we will be like gods. Extract free will from thought and you find God’s will.
God knows all because He is all. Man is not a god, but God’s infinite idea.

Answer 9

It is free will that allows us to make decisions on our own. The simple truth is that we, as Believers..have the free will to consult God in every decision we make. If we choose to walk away from Him, Grace may turn to Grief before we have a chance to blink.

Answer 10

Just because God is all knowing, doesn't affect the gift of free will he's given us. Unless he intervenes on our actions, our choices and the consequences we get as a result are completely our own.