Free Will and our Lives

[gabcmiller]

I am confused.

I thought that I was taught that with free will, we have some control over how our lives go but I know that God also has a plan and knows what choices we will make.

Do we have the ability to be unsuccessful or successful in a job? I can’t help but see people (including myself) with self-defeating attitudes and not doing the best with money or being able to find a job.

Do we have the power to find a job or be successful by our attitudes? Or can we only get these things if God puts them right in front of us?

 

[Mumbles140]

I am confused.

I thought that I was taught that with free will, we have some control over how our lives go but I know that God also has a plan and knows what choices we will make.

Do we have the ability to be unsuccessful or successful in a job? I can’t help but see people (including myself) with self-defeating attitudes and not doing the best with money or being able to find a job.

Do we have the power to find a job or be successful by our attitudes? Or can we only get these things if God puts them right in front of us?

God gave us free will to make choices. Sometimes, our choices lead us to places we never intended, or put us in situations where we cut off the opportunity for other choices. So if you are disliking your job, or having money issues, make the choice to get better at these things. There’s always going back to school, finding a new job, even adult education classes on personal finances. Most banks even offer financial planning tools on their websites to help you manage your monthly finances.

God does have a plan, and He does know what we will choose, but His knowledge doesn’t affect the choices we make. All we can do is listen to Him, pray that He reveals our chosen path, and have the courage to make the choices that allow us to follow them!

 

[Earnest_Bunbury]

It is confusing, but it is a higher truth in all this that is hard to understand but explains it by faith. It is related to how God knows our free will and predestination. In Thomistic theology God moves us to the good that is our desire by nature, a nature He creates. When God moves, He moves infallibly but it is in us to deform this by our souls powers of will, intellect and the passions, when devoid of grace.

Our job is to accept the perfecting influence of His Grace and not to try to have the Mind of God to know when He is moving us to the good He creates. His thoughts are not our thoughts. As Augustine says: “Why He draws one, and another He draws not, seek not to judge, if thou dost not wish to err.”

Different schools have varying ways of explaining these subjects but Thomism is advocated in many papal encyclicals, not as an official theology or philosophy, but as compatible with true Catholic teaching.