I've having trouble with something...can someone help me to decide?

You ask a very tough question.

As far as the thought that we planned our lives, that's nonsense. You get no such understanding from the bible.

We do get an understanding that our lives are predestined according to scripture.

Eph 1 will talk about predestination.

Now, if that is the case, where does free will come into play?

Here is my understanding, but I won't hold it as dogmatic and I am open for correction on this one.

I believe that we are predestined according to becoming saved. We know that no man can come to God unless He draws him.

John 6:44

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

So God chooses who He draws and who He doesn't. We know that we were chosen before the earth was made.

Eph 1:4

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

I also believe that even though He has chosen us, it is still up to us to serve Him after that. We must make the choice to serve Him after the calling.

Joshua 24:15

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

So, we see that there is a choice to serve Him or not.

The callings that God gives us are not our choice. You can't choose to be an evangelist or a prophet. You can only acknowledge what God has called you to be and work in that calling. However, you still have a choice to operate in that calling or not.

You can still be disobedient or obedient. That choice is up to you.

Here's the bottom line. We shouldn't be overly concerned about this. Regardless of whether we are predestined or not, our main focus should be to serve God with our all. The doctrine of predestination causes some people to become lazy in the faith because they feel that they can't screw up. So, they wind up becoming lazy and very bad Christians.

Just serve God with everything you have and let these kinds of questions be answered after we meet God face to face.

I was raised in a very religious family. My great grandfather was a pastor and I have always been convinced that God is all knowing as well and that Jesus died for my sins. In college, I took a philosophy class which I think began my "quest for truth" (for the lack of a better way to describe it). This is my thought: Almost everything we do at every moment in our lives are based on faith and beliefs, religious or not. For example, I believe in setting goals and plans for the future, it can be for next year or for tomorrow. But I have no control over what's going to happen to me, and I have no control over whether a person will drink tonight and then decide to drive and will carelessly hit my car and kill me later, so, I can only have faith that I will be able to fulfill these plans and goals I have set. I don't know of any power out there that is controlling my life like a chess game. I only know that I can control my own actions and make my own decisions and if I happen to affect someone else's life along the way, it is only the result, or consequence of my actions. It's your life and it's all about what it is that you truly believe. WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO LIVE WITH and WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO LIVE WITHOUT? If you can live a life without the knowledge of a God or without the belief that Jesus died for you, then so be it. But if you cannot live without the thought that a God is guiding you and ensuring you a life in heaven after you die, then that is what you have to believe.

Good luck and have a wonderful day!

I definitely dont believe we preplanned our lives. Oh cmon then everybody would be rich and beautiful. but i do beleive that our lives are preplanned by God. Having made us, he also knows us, yet he gives the freedom to choose knowing all well what we will choose. he has chosen the destiny, the route to that destination belongs to us, right choices and we reach within a while on a smooth journey. wrong choices and a rocky road leads us there. The point of Him giving us choices is this, just because your mother knows you love icecream she aint going to stuff it down your throat. she will keep in the fridge and leave the choice up to when and how you want to eat it. you see life is like that. God has kept everything we need, we want, we need ot have right before us and for us. it is our choice, when and how to use it and of course be assured you will be where you should be? if you think you are not where you want to be, think hard, may be its the wrong choice, work your footsteps backwards, rationalize and try walking again. Dont blame your defeat on God, the choice is yours, you have to endure cause you chose to, and only you can help yourself withGod's assistance to help you out.

God doesn't plan ur life or decide ur destiny, U r the creator of ur destiny, God does not come between u and what u do. If he would have done that there would be no evil existing in this world today.

People may wonder why, if God exists, He doesn’t wave a magic wand and fix things, making or at least influencing everyone so that they do exactly what they ‘should’ do. But God never takes away anyone’s freedom of choice. God’s wisdom is to recognize and respect each soul’s individual identity, freedom and inherent goodness. God shares knowledge – a profound understanding of the dualities and dilemmas of love and hatred, happiness and sorrow, victory and defeat, etc. – but He does not make our choices for us. The soul is free to choose ‘to be or not to be’, ‘to love or not to love’. God’s love strengthens the soul’s will to free itself from the distresses caused by vices such as selfish desire, anger, fear, ego and attachment. God’s power helps the soul to recognize its highest potential and to aim for perfection by practising the art of simple living and high thinking. Such practice by a significant number of souls eventually brings about positive change in the whole of humanity.

There is no proof that your life was predetermined by anyone (even yourself) Look past what people say and find your own faith. You have all you need as a "free will agent" in this life to learn, discover, test, and re-evaluate as you see. You can change your beliefs 180 degrees as many times as you need to. Just aways remember the root, the core, the only one true common denominator will always be love. Forget the ignorance of predestination and live your life today, while you still have one.

I can only tell you what I believe. God is within all of us. Our free will is an aspect of God, therefore when we make a choice, it is God making that choice. This is not to say the we are subject to the will of God and the will of God alone, but rather that we are sort of like God with blinders on. God chooses to live life in various different ways therefore He/She/it takes physical form in these bodies. Depending on the body chosen depends on the aspect of existence that God has access to. We (as in our spark of God) chooses the particular life that we have in order to experience it, the bad as well as the Good.

I'm up WAY past my bedtime, but if your question is still posted tomorrow afternoon, I'll get back to you! I'm 'falling asleep at the wheel' (PC, actually)! .......

I'm back! I apologize!

And I've found what I was wanting to share with you:

Can You Control Your Future? :

... What Controls Your Future?

...... Can You Control Your Destiny? http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2005/1/15/arti...

This seems like it was written just for you! It includes live-link Scripture references, & links to other related articles. Plus, I'm adding a few (below) for convenience.

It sounds to me like you might also like to consider:

Dabbling in the Occult — What's the Harm?

(Young People Ask series)

http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/2002/1/22a/art...

"Make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine."

(1 Thessalonians 5:21) You can't be too cautious in making sure that your beliefs are harmonious with God's word. So I encourage you to check everything out according to what the Bibe itself says. You can find more info, &/or help at the

I think that is one debate in the church that doesn't fully come down on one side or the other - that of predestination vs freewill.

I could suggest that perhaps you can carefully research both sides and find that there are aspects of each that you may find ring true and aspects that don't - but we wont know for sure this side of eternity.

another suggestion is perhaps try going to a church of a different denomination/tradition to what you were bought up in and approach the faith you share from a different angle which can enlarge your understanding

my take on that is that God has his ultimate plans for us but the day to day workings of our lives he walks through alongside us as we exercise our freewill. (IE we can choose to throw the dice but God knows what number is coming up)

I think from God's point of view our lives are predestine; from our point of view, we have options.

I see it like this life is a movie. God is the producer. We are the actors. We have free choice. We haven't seen the movie to the end, yet. God has seen the finished product. He knows the choices we made. We don't know, yet. Hope this helps.

What God knows is uncomprehensible you and I are a grain of sand in air compared to the rest of the world. Again we can not waste our time trying to figure out God. We should enjoy our time adoreing him and worshipping him. Trust in God and he will light the path you come to a fork in the path one is dark and one is lighted when you are walking with God. So you follow the light. When you turn your back on God there is no light. So your in the dark. And thats when you endure, as you put it. Stay with the lord and in the light.