Are you Hanging on to Your Free Will?

 Us Christians speak a lot about our free will. Free will is at the apex of one of our most contested theologies, the doctrine of election and how it relates to the sovereignty of God. I know that many of my closest brothers and sisters in Christ disagree with my stance on election. And while it is not considered a doctrine that should separate us a Christians, it is certainly a difficult one that can become emotional at times.

Personally, though I feel extremely confident in the position I hold from a strict Biblical view, I have found that to argue about it usually winds up fruitless and non-productive. Yet the topic of free will fascinates me and I wish more of us could discuss it without getting personal and without it bringing in any hard feelings. But lately as I study scripture I cannot help but be led to one question that I believe each of us should consider deeply.

Why would we want free will? I can promise you this; God has given us free will to sin if we so choose. And forgive me if this sounds judgmental, but after observing a great many people who claim Christ including myself, I sure see a lot of sin still going on even amongst us Christians, especially amongst us Christians. I am not going to speak on the sins of others here, nor will I even self-confess mine, that is not the goal of what I believe God has called me to point out. What I will do is suggest that we stop seeking our own free will and instead commit our lives to doing God’s will.

Jesus is pretty clear in the Gospel of John as to what His goal was while He walked this earth as the God-man. Let us look at a few scriptures.

John 4:34
 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

John 5:30
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

John 6:38
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Three chapters in a row we find Jesus declaring that He did not come to do His own will, but to do the will of the one who sent Him, who obviously is our Almighty Father in Heaven.

If Jesus came to this earth and took bodily form to do God’s will and not His own, then who are we to seek our own will?

Friends we can argue over free will until the cows come home. But the truth is each and every one of us must fall on our knees in humility and ask for forgiveness for all the times we sought our own will. We need to begin to pray for God’s will to be done in our lives because that is what Jesus modeled for us.

Sometimes praying for God’s will is going to be difficult. Why? Because though His will is perfect, our fallen nature often prevents us from having the faith to trust Him when we things do not go as we desire them to. Paul explains this in Romans 12:2 saying, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” God’s will is good, acceptable, and perfect. How does your free will stand up to that? It doesn’t. Our will gets messed up so much by the world that we need to transformed by renewing our minds and then by testing the will we desire to see if it is the will of God.

Prayer is the place to begin when we decide we must let God’s will become our will. In the model for prayer Jesus gives us, we see clearly that it is God’s will that we must pray for.

Matthew 6:10
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Then the night before He would go to the cross we find Jesus, in His humanity, praying for another way than the horrors of what He’s about to face. But then listen to what He finishes with.

Matthew 26:39
“And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Three times Jesus prayed for another way but each time he finishes by praying for God’s will not His own. We must pray like Jesus. Yes it is okay to ask God for anything. But we must be sure that what we ask for in His answer is that His answer be based on His will.

Yes, we have free will. But I just don’t recall any Bible stories where the free will of man is the proper way. I know that my experience is that every time I exercise my free will things get messed up. Only when God’s will becomes our will can we be where we should be.

To pray for God’s will requires trust and faith in Him. So we must decide, do I trust God? Do I trust Him with every aspect of my life?

I have free will. I have freedom in Christ. Why not use my freedom in Christ to give up my will and say your will be done not my will?

I love the story of Saul. On his way to exercise his free will and kill more Christians, he suddenly gets his will captured by God and then Saul, master Christian persecutor, becomes Paul, Apostle of Jesus who would go on to write much of the New Testament.

So I leave you with a question? What will you do with your free will? Hang on to it? Or surrender your will to God and let His will guide your life?