Control or lack thereof--Part 2

Today, my friends and I had some pretty interesting discussion on free will, and I've been thinking about that for the past few hours. What is the meaning of free will, and can people truly have it?

When you think of free will, you imagine a person who can make whatever choices they want. They are independent, and are responsible for what goes on in their own life. Their "will" is completely unconstrained, and through that, their other aspects, like their mind, is also "free." The problem with this conception of free will is that every single little thought they have would have to be original, without any outside influence, much like what I described in my Worldview post. This, of course, is impossible. There is absolutely no way that one person could have only completely original thoughts. Even a person in isolation is impacted by the things around them, or things remembered from a bygone time. In fact, this definition of free will is a bit scary. You essentially aren't allowed to have friends, or contact with anyone. From the time you are born to your death, you would have to be in complete isolation, and even though, you could be impacted by the outside world.

So therefore, free will is really impossible. Whatever you do, is somewhat influenced by someone or something. It's impossible to prevent that. You may have some semblance of control over your life, and your own decisions, but the decisions you make are based on influences around you. Your environment constrains your will; you are only partially free.

This is where my faith comes in.

God gives everyone "free will" from the beginning. This "free will" allows a person to decide for themselves what choices they make. It does not mean that their every thought is original or that they are not influenced. People are simply able to make choices. Now, this "free will" is still very easily influenced. Men are weak; there is no doubt about this. It only takes one phrase to drastically change our minds. In fact, our "free will" isn't really free at all. You see, if you're not with God, you're "in the world," and essentially, your "free will" is being controlled by the Enemy. You may think you have free will, but that's only because the Enemy is giving you that illusion of control, of power.

But you're probably thinking, "Well, ok, what if I want my free will. Does that mean I go with God?" No. In my understanding, God gives us free will to choose between Him and the world. But that's as far as your free will can go. If you choose the world, your "free will" will be heavily influenced by the world. You may think you have "free will" but you don't.

Under God, you still have free will. You can choose to do God's Will or not, it's completely your decision. But, if you are truly in Christ, your will becomes God's Will. Your desire for free will is decreased, because soon, it's not you who is living, but rather God living through you.

I'm sorry if that's not what you were expecting from this post, but I think talking about this definitely helps myself. I'm able to reflect, and grow even more from these experiences. Now, just a fair warning. I don't know if my description of free will is completely "accurate", but it's what in my heart, and what I wanted to share.

Now for a YouTube video. This is an absolute classic, and I love this song. It's by my favorite band, Casting Crowns.

I hope this song encourages you as much as it encourages me.