How does God decide what He wants to or is going to do?

[invisiblewitnes]

Hi,

Jesus decides what He wants to do by listening and following His Father’s will in prayer, etc. How does God the Father, or perhaps the Trinity as one God, decide on what He wants to, is going to do, or will do, etc. How does God decide what is good and what is not, etc? I have been kicking around the germ of this question in my mind for a while without knowing how to articulate it. What can we know about how God makes decisions about what He wants, does, loves, etc.?

Thank you for any ideas or resources that might help me understand this aspect of God’s greatness.

God bless you.

 

[Ad_Orientem]

“How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!” --Rom. 11:33

We don’t know how God’s mind works, but theology can tell us a few things about it, mostly what it’s not. For one thing, his knowledge is not discursive, i.e. he does not have a succession of thoughts like we do; he does not reason or analyze. St. Thomas’s explanation is that “God sees all things in one, which is Himself. Therefore God sees all things together, and not successively” (S.T. I, Q14, a7).

If you follow the link above, you will find a longer discussion on this topic.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Invisible,

God is infinitely perfect from all eternity. If He needed a succession of “rational” conclusions to make décisions, then he would not be perfect, because he could acquire knowledge. He is one perfect eternal act who has made His “decisions” from all eternity. From all eternity he “decides” what kind of a world is going to exist, and that includes everything rhat happens, including our free will decisions.

Whether this world is the best that he could have created is a moot point, but it is the one that best fulfils his purpose, to show His love and to be loved in return and make us happy wilth Him forever.

Verbjum