Does God control the decisions we make in our lives?

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God doesn’t make our decisions for us but He does know beforehand what we’re going to choose.

Generally people get it wrong when they talk about the role God plays in our personal development and this kind of question is a prime example of how. God doesn’t want to kill our free will, He wants to expand it.

What makes a decision easier or harder to make? If a decision is easy to make, then it’s more predictable that you’d make that decision. Making decisions and seeing the consequences of those decisions is the core mechanism of personal growth. Not knowing the consequences is what makes us invested in the decision. If you knew all the consequences then it wouldn’t be an interesting decision.

Generally, what God does for us in our lives is to make the decisions we need to make in our lives more interesting. He can generally predict what we’re going to choose and that’s how He is able to make plans. But just because He can make plans and predict our actions doesn’t make those actions any less freely chosen.

When we can come to a greater awareness of the consequences of our actions, then we can make better choices. God continues to work to keep making it more interesting for us.