Does God's will change

[Blessedwithfive]

Does God’s will for us change over time by our own choices? Like say I believed God’s will for me were to have six children but I decided to stop having children at five…as I live out the rest of my life, does God’s will change now that I haven’t followed him this time or am I going to be constantly in flux because of this decision? By the way, this is purely hypothetical. I’m very happy with my five! But I have a friend who has to make a hard decision about their vocation and I would like to try to give some encouragement that even if he chooses to go against God’s will this time, he will not be constinently at odds with our Creator.

Thanks!

 

[Monica4316]

If God wanted someone to have six children, and they decided to have five only, no I don’t think that God’s Will changes to five children. This would be a case where our will is at odds with God’s Will.

The reason I think so is that if this was the case, then our self-will would be completely justified, when in reality it’s a serious aspect of the fall and we need to choose God’s Will over our will. As Our Lord prayed, “Your Will be done, not mine” (referring to His human will).

 

[fladreamer]

Does God’s will for us change over time by our own choices? Like say I believed God’s will for me were to have six children but I decided to stop having children at five…as I live out the rest of my life, does God’s will change now that I haven’t followed him this time or am I going to be constantly in flux because of this decision? By the way, this is purely hypothetical. I’m very happy with my five! But I have a friend who has to make a hard decision about their vocation and I would like to try to give some encouragement that even if he chooses to go against God’s will this time, he will not be consistently at odds with our Creator.

Thanks!

I don’t think there exists a cut and dry answer to this. God adapts his will to new sets of circumstances. Let’s say his will for a woman is to have a family and many biological kids, butshe gets pregnant at 16, becomes sterile as a result. God’s original plan/will has been thwarted. Now obviously his will will be different. It may involve kids or no kids, a husband or no husband etc. What if God wants a higher education for a fellow, who decides, as a teen, to soothe his anxiey with drugs, and he screws up his brain, making him unable to learn much. God had a plan for Adam and Eve, they blew it, and he had another plan for humankind.

 

[Blessedwithfive]

I don’t think there exists a cut and dry answer to this. God adapts his will to new sets of circumstances. Let’s say his will for a woman is to have a family and many biological kids, butshe gets pregnant at 16, becomes sterile as a result. God’s original plan/will has been thwarted. Now obviously his will will be different. It may involve kids or no kids, a husband or no husband etc. What if God wants a higher education for a fellow, who decides, as a teen, to soothe his anxiey with drugs, and he screws up his brain, making him unable to learn much. God had a plan for Adam and Eve, they blew it, and he had another plan for humankind.

So are we thinking that Gods plan adapts when we make the wrong choice? So a person who doesn’t follow Gods plan and chooses a different vocation can still have a fruitful and productive life in the “new” plan of God’s?

 

[fladreamer]

So are we thinking that Gods plan adapts when we make the wrong choice? So a person who doesn’t follow Gods plan and chooses a different vocation can still have a fruitful and productive life in the “new” plan of God’s?

It’s all a mystery really. If God calls a young man to be a priest, but he decides instead to get married, that may or may not be God’s best for him, but once he’s married, the first vocation is no longer possible. Perhaps God will call him to be a deacon or be involved in some way in the Church. I don’t think God is petty and holding on to things we didn’t do perfectly or how he wished we had responded ten years earlier. Grace is always available, so is forgiveness. The scarlet sins of decades upon decades of living like the devil can be forgiven and blotted out in one genuine confession. I’M not saying that to imply that it’s wrong or sinful to not follow what one’s feels called to do by God, I’m just saying God seems to be the god of brand new starts, clean slates etc.

 

[egretps]

I have wondered this also.

For instance God wills that all men should be saved. (paraphrasing).
But, with the truth of free will, some men will chose not to be saved.

It may seem simplistic, but essentially, from that old edition of the catechism, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.” Any thing I do, if it is for this end, I am in God’s will.

If I marry, as long as I honor and respect my husband and wedding vows and fulfil my vocation then, I will be in God’s will. If I really had a vocation to religious life, I’m pretty certain I would have found myself at the convent. Doors would have opened and opportunities and nudges that direction. Utilizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help make my decisions to the best of my ability to discern or a healthy educated guess. I use my free will with a formed conscience, I’m probably working within God’s will. I think it’s harder in general if you are outside the church, and living in a state of mortal sin. It’s all muddy and trudging and flailing about. Even there, God is able to bring about his plan. He’ll patiently wait for you to come to him.

I worried that I might be against God’s will or his plan for me from time to time. Poor decisions, poor planning. But, I’ve decided to stop fretting. There was a little pamphlet called “Help for making difficult decisions” by Rev. Eamon Tobin from Liguori publishing. It probably would have been helpful for me when I was young and starting out.

Watching the Bethlehem Star dvd was a huge comfort. It’s about the great cosmic clock showing how God placed the stars and other astronomical bodies in such a way that the life of Christ was depicted in the heavens and had to be placed there from the beginning of the universe. So, if Our Lord can speak that into existence, my poor planning wouldn’t be a hard thing for him to work around or even incorporate in his plan.

God is omniscient knowing what was, is and will be. He is outside of time.

I have looked back at my own life and can see where I may have had any number of opportunities. I was capable of many but chose a certain profession, marriage and was blessed with motherhood. Helped people, paid bills, wiped noses.

I am certain that someone much more educated in philosophy will tackle this better than I can, but that video was shown on EWTN several years ago and took my breath away. My mind buzzed for days. I had always loved the planets and sky watching, but now, it sang to me of how God’s providence has played out in our Lord’s life and history.

God’s got it under control, and our part is to form our conscience and do that which is in congruence with his will. It often makes our life better, although not always ‘easier’. The commandments and the Church and her sacraments help us along.

 

[fladreamer]

So are we thinking that Gods plan adapts when we make the wrong choice? So a person who doesn’t follow Gods plan and chooses a different vocation can still have a fruitful and productive life in the “new” plan of God’s?

There is a large range of possibilities within good. So I would not say ‘‘wrong’’ necessarily. God probably proposes more than he imposes. I don’t think God has a rigid plan, we probably have way more leeway than we think. For all it’s worth youtube.com/watch?v=US8Ax9rBKKw, skip to 26:10.

 

[egretps]

Just watched the youtube video of Fr. Michael, WOW!!!

And now I know a new novena. The ‘Flying Novena’, or express novena suggested by M. Theresa. Nine memorares in a row in the event of an ‘emergency’ need. For instance, discernement in choices.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

 

[fladreamer]

Just watched the youtube video of Fr. Michael, WOW!!!

And now I know a new novena. The ‘Flying Novena’, or express novena suggested by M. Theresa. Nine memorares in a row in the event of an ‘emergency’ need. For instance, discernement in choices.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

You’re very welcome.

 

[SusanneT]

Does God’s will for us change over time by our own choices? Like say I believed God’s will for me were to have six children but I decided to stop having children at five…as I live out the rest of my life, does God’s will change now that I haven’t followed him this time or am I going to be constantly in flux because of this decision? By the way, this is purely hypothetical. I’m very happy with my five! But I have a friend who has to make a hard decision about their vocation and I would like to try to give some encouragement that even if he chooses to go against God’s will this time, he will not be constinently at odds with our Creator.

Thanks!

Isn’t this one of the simpler examples because what we know for sure is that contraception is always a sin and that even in using NFP a couple should be open to God’s will.

 

[thistle]

Does God’s will for us change over time by our own choices? Like say I believed God’s will for me were to have six children but I decided to stop having children at five…as I live out the rest of my life, does God’s will change now that I haven’t followed him this time or am I going to be constantly in flux because of this decision? By the way, this is purely hypothetical. I’m very happy with my five! But I have a friend who has to make a hard decision about their vocation and I would like to try to give some encouragement that even if he chooses to go against God’s will this time, he will not be constinently at odds with our Creator.

Thanks!

How would anyone know how many children they were supposed to have. God does not dictate that.
His will is that everytime you have sexual intercourse with your wife/husband (I don’t know which you are) you must be open to life.

 

[Blessedwithfive]

How would anyone know how many children they were supposed to have. God does not dictate that.
His will is that everytime you have sexual intercourse with your wife/husband (I don’t know which you are) you must be open to life.

I was implying that I used birth control after five kids. Therefore interfering with God’s plan. am I now constituently at odds with God or does his plan now change…

 

[thistle]

I was implying that I used birth control after five kids. Therefore interfering with God’s plan. am I now constituently at odds with God or does his plan now change…

If you use artificial birth control (not NFP) then that is a sin of grave matter and if you know that it is a mortal sin. Obviously mortal sins are not God’s will. His will does not change to allow anyone to commit mortal sins.
His will does not change but the will of anyone committing mortal sins must change.

 

[Blessedwithfive]

If you use artificial birth control (not NFP) then that is a sin of grave matter and if you know that it is a mortal sin. Obviously mortal sins are not God’s will. His will does not change to allow anyone to commit mortal sins.
His will does not change but the will of anyone committing mortal sins must change.

The question is if you don’t follow God’s plan (will) and you can no longer follow his will for some reason (like you used ABC to limit how many children you had and now it is too late to have children) does God’s will for you now change or are you constantly in flux. I am assuming you have asked forgiveness for not following his will in the first place. Like how long are you punished for not following his will…

 

[thistle]

The question is if you don’t follow God’s plan (will) and you can no longer follow his will for some reason (like you used ABC to limit how many children you had and now it is too late to have children) does God’s will for you now change or are you constantly in flux. I am assuming you have asked forgiveness for not following his will in the first place. Like how long are you punished for not following his will…

God wants everyone to join him in Heaven, However, he gave us freewill to accept or reject his love. Anyone in a state of mortal sin has rejected his love. God will not say its okay for anyone to continue sinning. WE have to change, repent and go to Confession. Anyone who does not and dies in a state of mortal sin will go immediately to Hell and suffer eternal separation from God.
In your situation if you are telling us you use artificial birth control to prevent further pregnancies then that is a mortal sin. The answer is to immediately stop that, and go to Confession. That way your grace will be restored.

 

[Blessedwithfive]

God wants everyone to join him in Heaven, However, he gave us freewill to accept or reject his love. Anyone in a state of mortal sin has rejected his love. God will not say its okay for anyone to continue sinning. WE have to change, repent and go to Confession. Anyone who does not and dies in a state of mortal sin will go immediately to Hell and suffer eternal separation from God.
In your situation if you are telling us you use artificial birth control to prevent further pregnancies then that is a mortal sin. The answer is to immediately stop that, and go to Confession. That way your grace will be restored.

I think you are missing the question. I stated that in this scenario one has already repented and asked for forgiveness…now does God make a new plan for you, or are you punished for not choosing the “right” plan in the first place. And if you are punished, like for how long?

 

[mVitus]

Well punishment would be Purgatory which we wouldn’t know how long that’d be. (And from some things said by saints, Purgatory may be able to be avoided by penance on Earth though that isn’t official doctrine.)

Personally, I cannot say what would happen in regards to God’s will considering I’m not God, but my guess is that God would’ve factored in the birth control and built his plan around that so that you’d still have work to do. (This is based off of thinking about Jesus a bit. Murder of the innocents is wrong and against God’s will, but we know Jesus’ death was a great victory for Heaven which makes me think that God’s plan factors in the sinful choices of man and isn’t taken away by that. [Not that it would condone sin.])

 

[porthos11]

The first, precise answer is that God’s will never changes. Ever. Period, full stop. This is because the Divine Will is, as with anything of the divine, immutable. There is absolutely no (as in no, nada, zip, zilch, null, zero) change in God.

Now since we exist in time, we can perceive God as changing his will or that his plan has changed say, when we disobey him by rejecting a vocation. But in truth, this is all an eternal act, and nothing we perceive as “change” in in fact a change; God has already ordained all this from eternity, having accounted for man’s free will and his response to grace. God’s order of providence is fixed, and there is no changing that. It just looks like “change” to us because of the inherent limitation of our existence, namely, a linear one.

This is all old stuff, and theologians have racked their brains over this and other questions related to this, namely, how does one reconcile God’s immutable will and man’s free will. The result is that there are multiple proposals, some orthodox and acceptable, others heretical and condemned. But ultimately, the Church has not ruled on this or defined it.

And as I’ve mentioned before whenever questions like these pop up, I tend towards the Molinist view.

 

[thistle]

I think you are missing the question. I stated that in this scenario one has already repented and asked for forgiveness…now does God make a new plan for you, or are you punished for not choosing the “right” plan in the first place. And if you are punished, like for how long?

If you, like any of us who have mortally sinned repent, confess and are absolved then you simply have to avoid mortally sinning in future and if you trip up you go back to Confession.
God’s will does NOT change.
I really don’t understand why you would torture yourself thinking God meant you to have 6 children but you decided you only have 5 so you are damned. That is completely wrong. Sincere Confession and absolution solves that.